Unilever: From a village community, global brands arose

Sep 21 2007

UNILEVER’S factory at Port Sunlight is world famous, probably because of the village built by the factory’s owner more than 100 years ago to house his workers.

One of the most famous examples of early urban planning, Port Sunlight is a 19th-century garden village consisting of over 900 grade II-listed buildings founded in 1888 by William Hesketh Lever for his soap factory workers.

Although no longer dedicated to housing the nearby factory’s workers, it remains a thriving, living village as well as a popular tourist attraction, with a museum, art gallery, garden centre, church, theatre and landscaped gardens.

The company became famous for the Sunlight soap created by Lever who had been determined to revolutionise Victorian England’s standards of cleanliness and hygiene.

Since those days, the factory has changed significantly as the company has grown into a multinational concern.

Hundreds of scientists and engineers based at the company’s Port Sunlight centre have helped create global brands such as Dove, Sunsilk, Lynx and Cif.