“The present Univar organisation has its heritage embedded in two continents, North America and Europe”.
Our Heritage
In North America this began in 1924 with the establishment of Van Waters and Rogers by George Van Waters and Nat S. Rogers. Over time this business grew and acquired other North American businesses including Canada in the 1950’s. In 1973 there was a name change to Univar (an abbreviation of ‘United Van Waters and Rogers’) and in the late 1980’s a Dutch chemical logistics company, Royal Pakhoed, invested in Univar. In 1999 Royal Pakhoed merged with Van Ommeren to form Vopak. Meanwhile, Ellis & Everard, a UK company looked to the USA in 1981 to grow its business and a series of acquisitions followed. When Vopak acquired Ellis & Everard in 2000 the two businesses in North America were integrated.
In Europe the roots of the current business can be traced back to 1616 in Amsterdam with a company called Blauwhoed which eventually became part of the merger to form Royal Pakhoed in 1967. However, in Europe throughout the late 19th century and most of the 20th century, chemical distribution thrived on a national level. In the 1990’s consolidation of national businesses gathered pace as companies strove for a pan-European presence. Royal Pakhoed played its part in this consolidation and then in 1999 it merged with Van Ommeren to form Royal Vopak.
In the UK the history of the company began with Ellis & Everard in 1848 and RW Greeff in 1880. Within Ellis & Everard the chemical business started in 1915 but only began to grow in the late 1960’s to eventually become the UK’s largest chemical distributor by the late 1980’s. At this time and during the 1990’s Ellis & Everard developed a polymer business in the UK and Europe under the Distrupol name and a food ingredients business through the acquisition of G. Fiske & Co Ltd. In the meantime RW Greeff grew its business and was the first company to sell 3M™ products in the 1920’s. In 1974 RW Greeff joined with Kingsley & Keith to form K&K Greeff based in Croydon. Univar from the USA invested in K&K Greeff and in the 1990’s the business acquired Berk Ltd shortly before being acquired by Royal Pakhoed which then became Vopak although the business in the UK operated as Univar plc. Following the acquisition of Ellis & Everard by Vopak in 2000 the two businesses in the UK were integrated.
In 2002 Vopak maintained its logistics business but floated the chemical distribution business as a separate company and the Univar name was adopted worldwide with some brands being retained such as Distrupol, Fiske and RW Greeff. To find out more on our heritage visit http://www.univarcorp.com/