By Dani Bool
Archivist & Records Manager
Average read time: 2 minutes
Sunlight soap is one of Lever Brothers' oldest and well-established brands. 140 years ago, 'Sunlight' was registered as a trademark by Lever & Co and sale of the product began.
Prior to Sunlight, soap was produced in bars that were sliced into pieces in shops. Sunlight, however, was the first household soap to be wrapped. At first Sunlight tablets were wrapped in imitation parchment. The outer card box for Sunlight was first introduced in 1886; the brightly coloured cartons also featured a £1,000 reward for any impurities found in the product. As far as we know, this reward was never claimed.
Sunlight Soap spread rapidly to almost every country in the world and established a flourishing export trade, which in turn led the way to the construction of factories for its manufacture on nearly every continent.
In 1885 Lever & Co. leased the soap works of Winser & Co at Warrington to start the production of their own soap, and in January 1886 the first batches of Sunlight soap were manufactured here. The Warrington Factory is pictured below:
Happy World Heritage Day from UARM!