The BOC Group history

In January of 1886 the brothers established Brin's Oxygen Company Limited.

Consequently, in 1887, under the guiding hand of Henry Sharp, Brin's began granting licenses to a handful of independent companies throughout Great Britain to produce oxygen under the patented Brin process.

In 1888 the new plant went into operation and production increased from nearly 145,000 to 690,000 cubic feet of oxygen.

In 1890 Brin's introduced another improvement in containment, a steel cylinder, which soon became the standard of gas containment worldwide, and expanded its production to related products, such as valves and fittings.

By 1900, however, a new method of producing oxygen by converting air to liquid had been devised independently in Britain, the United States and Germany.

In 1906 Brin's Oxygen Company Limited became the British Oxygen Company Limited, or BOC.

In 1920 BOC acquired a London company called Sparklets Ltd.

In 1925 Kenneth Sutherland Murray, the company's first foreman, was appointed chairman.

In an effort to further increase its welding interests, during 1936 BOC acquired the Quasi-Arc Company, a British company which had a refined welding electrode instrument that improved the process of arc welding.

By 1950 BOC had formed subsidiary companies in over 20 countries.

In 1957 the British Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission published a report stating that the company's prices for oxygen and dissolved acetylene were "unjustifiably high" and operated "against the public interest." According to the report, BOC had deliberately set out to build a monopoly.

BOC drew criticism again in 1962 when the Board of Trade released the company from some of its obligations to the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission.

In 1970 the company began producing cutting and welding machines which incorporated sophisticated techniques using lasers and electron beams.

In the wake of the 1973-74 oil crisis, BOC reassessed its portfolio and decided to divest itself of its more peripheral interests in order to concentrate on its primary business, especially the gases and health care markets.

In 1982 BOC acquired a United States company called Glasrock Home Health Care, which provided oxygen therapy and medical equipment to chronically ill and elderly patients at home.

The company initiated a medical equipment joint venture with Japan's NEC San-ei and purchased the home medical businesses of Healthdyne Inc., both in 1990.

In 1993 BOC combined its health care businesses, giving them the name Ohmeda.

Overall, BOC revenues increased somewhat, to £4.0 billion from £3.75 billion in 1996.

In 1997, Ohmeda revenues were again down, this time by 6 percent.

The highlights of the Division's overseas performance was the successful supply of a 2000 tpd ASU to PT Linde Indonesia at Cilegon Indonesia which was commissioned during the year for supply of gases to POSCO Steel works.

In November 2004 the company entered into a long-term gas supply agreement with Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Limited (JVSL) for supply of gaseous oxygen and nitrogen to them under a 15-year supply contract.

In June 2006 the company has signed a long-term gas supply contract with JSW Steel Ltd for supply of over 3000 tonnes per day of gaseous oxygen nitrogen and argon.

In this respect a legally binding Business Combination Agreement had been signed between Linde AG and Praxair Inc. on 1 June 2017.

In view of this LSAS Services Private Ltd. became a Joint Venture Company of your Company with effect from 24 March 2020.