Lever Brothers Factory

The Lever Brothers Factory in the Sydney, Australia suburb of Balmain was a soap factory which operated from 1895 until 1988. It employed many people from the local area and its large industrial buildings were a prominent feature of the landscape. Most of the site was demolished in 1996 to make way for a new apartment complex and only three of the original buildings remain.

The factory was situated on a 10 hectare (24.71 acre) site near Booth Street and Punch Park in the western end of Balmain, adjacent to White Bay.

The British Lever Brothers company was founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever. Lever Brothers Ltd was incorporated in Australia on 21 June 1894. Soon after this, in 1897, Lever Brothers established a plant at Balmain to extract oil from copra which was shipped back to Liverpool, England. In 1900, the Balmain plant began to manufacture Sunlight soap and glycerine, and other products followed.

Early in 1914, William Lever visited Melbourne as part of a worldwide tour of Lever interests. During the visit he met with J.Kitchen & Sons, who were established soap manufacturers, and offered to amalgamate the two firms. After consideration, it was agreed that Lever Bros would purchase three-quarters of the shares in J.Kitchen & Sons in return for cumulative preferred in Levers. Levers later bought all the remaining shares, and by about 1923-24 fully owned both companies. Shortly after, the company became known as Lever & Kitchen.

In 1989, the Home and Personal Care businesses of Lever & Kitchen merged with Rexona in Australia to form L&K: Rexona. The company changed name in 1993 to Lever Rexona and in 2000 merged with Unilever Foods to form what is now Unilever Australasia.

At its prime in 1958, the Balmain factory employed as many as 1,250 workers, many of whom were local residents. The complex contained a glycerine refinery, toilet soap plant, an oil refining and hardening works, as well as many storage tanks, extensive wharves and a small fleet of lighters and workboats.

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