Company History

Croda was formed in 1925 to make lanolin. Initially, trading was difficult, but a report from the National Physical Laboratory showed that lanolin is an effective rust preventive, opening up new markets. The war years led to collaboration with the Government to produce specialties such as camouflage creams and gun cleaning oils, but post war, many markets disappeared.

In the 1950s, Croda set up operations in the US and Italy, whilst a merger with Leek based C M Keyworth spearheaded a period of steady organic growth. During the 1960s, Croda grew rapidly by acquisition, notably United Premier Oil and British Glues. Croda became a public company.

The 1970s and ‘80s brought further growth, but an abortive takeover bid by Burmah Oil made Croda re-think its strategy of being a diversified conglomerate, to focus on its core specialty chemicals business. This has continued, developing new products, improving manufacturing facilities worldwide, and focusing on key global markets particularly personal care, health care, home care and plastics additives.

Company Overview

Croda. You won’t find our name in the High Street. Croda products are sold mainly to industry, forming part of other people’s products. For example, our surfactants help to create high quality cosmetic creams and lotions. Dietary supplements containing our specialty lipids can help to protect your health and even treat certain diseases. Our fatty acid amides add ‘slip’ to plastic surfaces, so plastic bags can be easily peeled apart. From foods to cars to cleaning wipes: the markets we serve are as diverse as industry itself. Croda isn’t a household name, but household names have made us successful. In 2004, our 1600 or so employees in 29 companies located in 25 countries achieved worldwide sales of almost £300m.

Personal Care

Croda personal care is a global business that serves our customers with a complete range of innovative products backed by our technical service expertise.

Originally founded to produce lanolin for the skin care market, Croda has been supplying high quality speciality chemicals to personal care for over 70 years. Whilst lanolin and other functional products remain important, the company's focus has been on the development of more sophisticated ingredients and actives covering all aspects of personal care.

Health Care - Dermatology

Croda’s extensive experience in the science of skin care has resulted in a number of pioneering ingredients that enhance the efficacy and feel of topical pharmaceuticals. Our dermatological product ranges include drug delivery systems, emollients, emulsifiers and lipid actives for skin moisturisation, barrier repair, and wound healing.

Supported by independent clinical studies and conforming to international pharmacopoeia, many of Croda Health Care’s ingredients find use in dermatological applications. These include the fields of emollient therapy and wound healing where recent studies have demonstrated the therapeutic benefits of our world-leading Medilan™ brand (medical grade lanolins). Further research has proven the value of our novel plant lipids for the treatment of common inflammatory skin conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis.

Keramax+ Hair Care

With KeraMax+, designer hair care has never been so easy. Specially developed to deliver premium sector performance, this salon-tested conditioner concentrate is proven to deliver outstanding results. Just add water – Croda has done the rest.

KeraMax+ is an optimised blend of conditioning agents, emulsifiers and stabilisers proven, through independent salon tests, to exhibit excellent performance benefits when compared to a leading premium conditioner brand.

A variety of hair care actives can be added to the KeraMax+ system to create a tailor-made range catering for today’s diverse hair care needs. The KeraMax+ range comes complete with a claim substantiation package, with scientifically proven efficacy for each variant.