Lever & Kitchen Pty Ltd

In 1962 Unilever amalgamated its two major soap marketing companies, J Kitchen & Sons Pty Ltd of Melbourne and Lever Brothers Pty Ltd of Sydney, to form Lever & Kitchen Pty Ltd. Lever & Kitchen became Unilever Australia’s major marketing company for branded soaps, synthetic detergents and allied products. Prior to 1962 Unilever’s production of detergents in Australia had taken place at Balmain (Lever Brothers) and Port Melbourne (J Kitchen & Sons). After 1965 Balmain became the sole manufacturing centre for all detergents, toilet preparations, edible oils and cooking fats - each having its own separate factory. Consumer demand for Lever & Kitchen’s products increased steadily and, as there was no space for further expansion at the Balmain site, a decision was made to buy land at Minto and to erect a new factory there. Initially this was for the manufacture and packaging of washing powders and, in 1979, Lever & Kitchen began production of its powder products, including Omo, Omomatic, Surf, Drive, Softly and Rinso from the new factory at Minto. As new or additional plant was needed for other products in the company’s range, in 1987, another factory was opened at Minto to manufacture liquid detergents (washing up liquids such as Sunlight Liquid, Lux Liquid and Kit), fabric softener (Comfort), floor cleaner (Handy Andy) and scourers (Jif and Vim). Also manufactured at Minto were toilet soaps (Lux Toilet Soap, Sunlight Toilet Soap), laundry soap (Sunlight) and flakes (Lux Flakes). The Balmain site was sold in 1988 and many of the production lines were transferred directly to Port Melbourne. By 1989, after renovations at the old John Kitchen detergent building at Port Melbourne, the factory was responsible for the production of all Lever & Kitchen soaps.In 1989 the home and personal care business of Lever and Kitchen Pty Ltd merged with Rexona Pty Ltd to form L&K:Rexona with its Head Office located at North Rocks, Sydney.The company changed name in 1993 to Lever Rexona and, in 2000, merged with Unilever Foods to form what was to become known as Unilever Australasia.

Sydney, New South Wales; Melbourne, Victoria

cleaning compound manufacturing; cosmetic and toiletry preparation manufacturing; soap and detergent manufacturing

Prepared by Margaret Avard, August 2012

Riches, Arnold (1944): History of J Kitchen & Sons; Unilever Australasia Company Website, Australasia's history, accessed July 2012; Jobsons Year Book of Public Companies, Australia and New Zealand; The Business Who’s Who of Australia