British Cellophane
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In 1935 British Cellophane Ltd (BCL), a joint venture between La Cellophane SA and Courtaulds began building a major factory for producing Cellophane in Bridgwater, Somerset, England.
The process for manufacturing cellulose film from viscose was discovered by three English chemists, Charles Frederick Cross, Edward John Bevan and Clayton Beadle in 1898.
There followed a series of joint ventures and technology transfers among a number of companies predominantly in the UK and France. However it was not until 1913 that Dr Jacques Brandenberger brought thin transparent cellulose film into true commercial production at the 'La Cellophane SA factory in Bezons, France.
In 1937 British Cellophane set up production on a site in Bridgwater, when unemployment levels in the town were high. The new buildings covered 59acres of the former Sydenham Manor fields, and had direct railway access.
The factory produced Cellophane up until late 1940 during World War II, when it started switching production to war munitions and specifically Bailey Bridges for the pending invasion of Europe. The Bailey Bridge was taken into service by the Corps of Royal Engineers and first used in Italy in 1943, with production ramping up through 1944 for D-Day.
Post World War II it returned to producing Cellophane, with BCL products exported worldwide. In 1957, a secondary facility was started at Dalton in Lancashire. A subsidiary Colodense Ltd, of Bedmister, Bristol produced specialist printed and coloured bags for lose food packaging in supermarkets, and in 1962 was employing 750+ people. In 1974 the company won the Queen's Award to Industry, and by the late 1970's the site produced 40,000 tonnes of Cellophane packaging film a year, and employed 3,000 people. In 1988 three separate factories on the site were producing cellulose and polythene film, and bonded fibre fabric. The rail link closed in 1994, and in 1996 the Dalton factory was closed after the company was bought by UCB Films in 1996, later Innovia Films - the plant this time employed 450people.
In 2004, due to dwindling sales of cellophane through use of alternative packaging options, and the fact that viscose was becoming less common because of the polluting effects of carbon disulfide and other by-products of the process, Innovia Films decided to close one of its two plants at either Bridgwater or Tecumseh, east of Topeka, Kansas. British officials offered a $120,000 tax break over three years to Innovia to save the plant in Bridgwater, while Kansas offered $2 million if it kept the plant at Tecumseh open. Resultantly the Bridgwater factory closed in the summer of 2005 with the loss of the remaining 250 jobs, and is now a Industrial Estate development.
[edit] References
- "Bridgwater with and without the 'e' " ', Roger Evans, ISBN 0-9525674-0-7
- A History of Bridgwater, J.C. Lawrence, ISBN 1-86077-363-X
- The "Cellophane" Story, Ward-Jackson
- Wembdon: Economic history - A History of the County of Somerset, Volume 6: Andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds
