A BRIEF HISTORY OF
JAMES M. BROWN LIMITED
The company was established in 1926 on its current site by James M. Brown originally to manufacture zinc oxide. At that time the pricipal use of this material was in paints, rather than rubber as is the case today. A severe depression took place in the whole of world industry over the next few years, but the company managed to survive.
During the World War II, the company was fortunate to be located near the Royal Ordnance factory at Swynnerton which used large amounts of zinc oxide for the manufacture of smoke grenades and shells. As a result, production increased enormously.
During the 1930s various cadmium compounds were also produced and amongst these were cadmium pigments. Commercial pigments were developed on an increasingly large scale and this enabled to company to cope with the reduction in demand for zinc oxide as the war came to an end. A further blow to zinc oxide came with the development of titanium dioxide, which quickly replaced zinc oxide as the pigment of choice in paints.
The growth of the plastic industry led to greatly increased demand for cadmium pigments, with their unique combination of bright colours, excellent heat stability and complete compatibility.
In 1945, James M. Brown sold half of his interest to the Tennant Group of companies but he continued to run the company until he retired in 1954, when the company became wholly owned by Tennants.
Customers who were buying cadmium pigments for use in plastics were often also using metallic stearates as dispersing and lubricating agents. JMB therefore started to produce calcium, zinc and magnesium stearates so as to broaden the service it could offer.
For more than a decade, JMB also produced zinc phosphate for use in anti-corrosive paints but production of both zinc oxide and zinc phosphate ended recently.
In addition to the manufacture of its own products, James M. Brown also acts as UK agent or distributor for other producers. This allows us to offer other product ranges which complement our own : the main materials covered are :-
- zinc oxide manufactured by US Zinc in the USA
- Cabot specialist carbon blacks for use in the plastics, coatings and ink industries
- the range of organic and inorganic pigments, anticorrosives and pigment preparations manufactured by Heubach GmbH
- ultramarines produced by Ultramarine & Pigments in India
Full details of our whole product range can be found on this Internet site : please feel free to contact us if you need further information.
