Fisons plc was a British multinational pharmaceutical, scientific instruments and horticultural chemicals company headquartered in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, United Kingdom. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pa ...

and was once a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest mar ...

. It was acquired by Rhone-Poulenc in 1995.

History

The business was established by Edward Packard, one of the first to manufacture superphosphate derived from

coprolites A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is de ...

, in 1843.Early history of the company to 1960
at UK Competition Commission, 1960. (PDF) Accessed September 2007 In 1863 he was joined in business by his son, also named

Edward Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

, who was instrumental in developing the business and rationalising the United Kingdom's fertiliser industry. The business was incorporated in 1895 under the name of ''Edward Packard and Company Limited''. In 1919 it bought a fertiliser business founded by James Fison of

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24, ...

in 1808 and in 1929 the parent company's name was changed to ''Packard and James Fison (Thetford) Limited'' to reflect the acquisition. In 1929 the company acquired the fertiliser business of the

Prentice Brothers Prentice Brothers Limited was an English fertiliser manufacturer founded in Stowmarket, Suffolk during the mid-1850s. The company produced a number of " chemical manure" products that used coprolites and rock phosphates among other ingredients. ...

, Stowmarket and the company was again renamed to Fison, Packard & Prentice, Limited. The Company formally changed its name to the shorter ''Fisons Ltd'' in 1942. During the 1950s, Fisons promoted the spraying of crops utilising helicopters. Fisons owned parts of the

Somerset Levels The Somerset Levels are a coastal plain and wetland area of Somerset, England, running south from the Mendips to the Blackdown Hills. The Somerset Levels have an area of about and are bisected by the Polden Hills; the areas to the south are ...

, where they extracted

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

. In 1970 one of their staff, Ray Sweet, discovered the remains of a timber trackway. It has been dated to 3807 or 3806 BC, and is now known as the

Sweet Track The Sweet Track is an ancient trackway, or causeway, in the Somerset Levels, England, named after its finder, Ray Sweet. It was built in 3807 BC (determined using dendrochronology) and is the second-oldest timber trackway discovered in t ...

. A portion is now in the collection of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

. In the early 1980s the company decided to focus on pharmaceutical products and its fertiliser activities were sold to

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world ...

in 1982. In the 1990s Fisons was targeted by the UK

Earth Liberation Front The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), also known as "Elves" or "The Elves", is the collective name for autonomous individuals or covert cells who, according to the ELF Press Office, use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploita ...

, who caused nearly $100,000 in damage during a "night of action" in retaliation for Fisons' draining peat bogs in the English countryside. Many years of successful growth were financed by sales of sodium cromoglycate in a variety of formulations used to treat

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, c ...

and allergies of the eye among several disease areas. However, the loss of lucrative product licences for

Opticrom Cromoglicic acid (International Nonproprietary Name, INN)—also referred to as cromolyn (United States Adopted Name, USAN), cromoglycate (former British Approved Name, BAN), or cromoglicate—is traditionally described as a mast cell stabilizer, ...

and

Imferon Iron supplements, also known as iron salts and iron pills, are a number of iron formulations used to treat and prevent iron deficiency including iron deficiency anemia. For prevention they are only recommended in those with poor absorption, h ...

in the USA in 1991 and the failure of clinical trials for

Tipredane Tipredane (developmental code name SQ-27239) is a synthetic glucocorticoid corticosteroid Corticosteroids are a class of steroid hormones that are produced in the adrenal cortex of vertebrates, as well as the synthetic analogues of these hor ...

, an asthma drug, in 1993 revealed bleak prospects for the business. In early 1995 the Instruments Division was sold to US Thermo Instrument Systems while the

Research and Development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

facilities in

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second lar ...

and

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located i ...

, with their pipelines were acquired by the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

company Astra AB. In late 1995 Fisons was acquired by the United States-based Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Inc., which in turn was wholly owned by France's chemical giant Rhône-Poulenc S.A.

Operations

Disused factory, Paper Mill Lane - geograph

The company was based in

with Pharmaceutical

, United Kingdom, and

, USA, and manufacturing in

Holmes Chapel Holmes Chapel is a large village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Until 1974 the parish was known as Church Hulme. Holmes Chapel is about north of Crewe and south of ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's coun ...

. The company's fertiliser factory in Ipswich, built in 1858, was

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

; it was destroyed in a fire, suspected to be caused by

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

, in 2019.

Sponsorship

Fisons were sponsors of Ipswich Town Football Club from the 1986/87 season through to the 1994/95 season, including the 1991–92 season when they won the Second Division championship and gained promotion to the new

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

References

External links

Sanofi-Aventis
UK home page
Fisons Plc
Entry at Business.com. (Internet Archive Snapshot of May 26, 2011; retrieved January 2017) {{Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry in the United Kingdom Companies based in Suffolk Pharmaceutical companies of the United Kingdom Chemical companies of the United Kingdom Conglomerate companies established in 1843 1843 establishments in England Companies disestablished in 1995 Defunct companies of England British companies established in 1843

History

Operations

Sponsorship

See also

References

External links