Croda International plc is a British speciality chemicals company based at Snaith, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
History
The company was founded by George William Crowe and Henry James Dawe in 1925.[4] Crowe bought an abandoned waterworks facility at Rawcliffe Bridge for £7, which would later be used to manufacture the company's first barrels of lanolin, a natural protective fat present in sheep's wool. The company was named Croda (a combination of the first few letters of his surname with that of his partner, Dawe).[4]
Crowe and Dawe began working on a process to extract lanolin from sheep’s wool for various industries, including uses in cosmetics, as a waterproofing agent, and as a dressing for leather. At the time, the UK imported lanolin, having no domestic lanolin production at all.[5] Dawe's extraction process failed initially and Dawe left the company.