Fisons plc was a British multinational pharmaceutical, scientific instruments and horticultural chemicals company headquartered in Ipswich, United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. 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, in 1843.[1] In 1863 he was joined in business by his son, also named Edward, 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.[1]
In 1919 it bought a fertiliser business founded by James Fison of Thetford in 1808 and in 1929 the parent company's name was changed to Packard and James Fison (Thetford) Limited to reflect the acquisition.[1] In 1929 the company acquired the fertiliser business of the Prentice Brothers, Stowmarket and the company was again renamed to Fison, Packard & Prentice, Limited.[2]
Hiller UH-12 helicopter used in 1955 by Fison-Airwork to demonstrate the use of aerial crop spraying
The Company formally changed its name to the shorter Fisons Ltd in 1942.[1] During the 1950s, Fisons promoted the spraying of crops utilising helicopters.[3]
Fisons owned parts of the Somerset Levels, where they extracted peat. In 1970 one of their staff, Ray Sweet, discovered the remains of a timber trackway. It has been dated to 3807 or 3806 BC,[4] and is now known as the Sweet Track. A portion is now in the collection of the British Museum.[5]
In the early 1980s the company decided to focus on pharmaceutical products and its fertiliser activities were sold to Norsk Hydro in 1982.[6]
In the 1990s Fisons was targeted by the UK Earth Liberation Front, who caused nearly $100,000 in damage during a "night of action" in retaliation for Fisons' draining peat bogs in the English countryside.[7]
Many years of successful growth were financed by sales of sodium cromoglycate in a variety of formulations used to treat asthma and allergies of the eye among several disease areas. However, the loss of lucrative product licences for Opticrom and Imferon in the US in 1991[8] and the failure of clinical trials for Tipredane, an asthma drug, in 1993 revealed bleak prospects for the business.[9]
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.[11]
Operations
Fisons' former fertiliser factory in Ipswich in 2009, ten years before its destruction by fire
