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Industry | Consumer Goods |
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Founded | 1884Warrington, England | in
Founders | William Hesketh Lever James Darcy Lever |
Defunct | 1930 |
Fate | Merged with Margarine Unie |
Successor | Unilever |
Brands | Sunlight Lifebuoy Lux Vim |
Number of employees | 250,000 (1930) |
Parent | Unilever ![]() |
Subsidiaries | Curtis Davis Company Huileries du Congo Belge A&F Pears Gossage's Watson's Crosfield's Hazlehurst & Sons Hudson's |
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson. Lever Brothers entered the United States market in 1895 and acquired Mac Fisheries, owner of T. Wall & Sons, in 1925. Its brands included Lifebuoy, Lux and Vim. Lever Brothers merged with Margarine Unie to form Unilever in 1929.[1]