Cleenol Group

Cleenol is an independent private family owned and run company which can trace its roots back to the early 1700s. In those days the Foster family ran a timber business in the West Midlands. When the canals were built they supplied timber for the lock gates and eventually the canal barges themselves. They became boat builders and then operated barges. When the coal industry decided to move coal by canal they became coal merchants.

The company's chemical activities started during the Second World War. By then twin brothers ran the coal business from Birmingham. One of their customers was the Shell Chemical Company. Before the war housewives used soap flakes to do the washing up, or small blocks of soap suspended under the tap. Because the raw materials to manufacture soap were needed for the war effort, Shell was asked by the Government to produce an alternative. They developed the first washing up liquid called Teepol. Shell were interested to discover whether the product could be sold into the industrial market place. They asked the twin brothers to put Teepol on the back of their coal lorries and try and sell it to their customers. It was an instant success and after a short period of time the brothers decided to divide the business, one taking the coal and the other taking the detergent. That brother, Mr Neville Foster first sold Teepol in glass bottles, then bottled it himself, and eventually manufactured it under licence. A chemist was employed who formulated a range of complementary products and Cleenol was born.

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