Nalco Holding Company history

National Aluminate’s sales for the year 1929 totaled more than $1 million.

In 1933 Emmett J. Culligan, then a chemist at National Aluminate, persuaded Herbert Kern to allow the company to produce a water softening, gel-type chemical zeolite.

In 1935, after Emmett Culligan left National Aluminate on friendly terms to start his own water softening company (later known as Culligan International Company), the company replaced the zeolites with more efficient synthetic ion exchange resins.

National Aluminate’s sales for the year 1939, near the end of the Great Depression, had grown to more than $3.8 million.

In 1949, when sales reached about $12 million, National Aluminate introduced a new diesel cooling system treatment in pellet form.

In 1952 National Aluminate incorporated its first foreign subsidiary, Nalco Italiana S.p.A., in Italy.

In 1964 Nalco opened a new factory at Freeport, Texas, for the production of lead antiknock compounds for gasoline.

Worley H. Clark, elected president in 1982, emphasized acquisitions and new product development.

In 1984 Fortune magazine named Nalco one of the 13 “Corporate Stars of the Decade,” based on the 21.5 percent return on shareholder’s equity over the period of a decade.

In August 1985, for the first time in its history, Nalco opened its oldest and largest factory, the Clearing plant, for public inspection.

Ondeo Nalco(formerly Nalco Chemicals India) incorporated on Dec 16 1987 as IEL a subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Inds UK is engaged in the business of oil field chemicals water treatment chemicals (5000 tpa) and industrial additives / process chemicals.

In 1991 the company equipped 250 of its sales personnel with laptop computers on an experimental basis.

In 1994 Nalco formed a joint venture with Exxon Chemical Company (a division of Exxon Corporation) that combined the partners’ global petroleum chemicals businesses.

Also acquired in April 1998 was Paper Chemicals, Inc., a Texarkana, Texas, provider of specialty chemical products to the pulping, bleaching, and recovery process areas of the pulp and paper industry.

A new plant in Thailand opened in Rayong Province in 1999.

In 2001 Suez created a global brand for all of its water-related companies, Ondeo, leading to a name change for Nalco to Ondeo Nalco.

The tangled history of the water-treatment chemicals industry continued in 2002 with Hercules’ sale of BetzDearborn to General Electric Company, which led Ondeo Nalco’s chief rival to begin operating as GE Water and Process Technologies.

The merger between Aqua Chemicals and Sytems Limited was completed in March 2003.

The merger of Aquazur India Pvt Ltd. a 100% Subsidiary with itself has become effective from Jan 1 2004.

At 1.79 million, demat accounts opened in June fewest since Feb 2021