British Nylon Spinners
Realizing that they needed the experience of a specialised textile firm, ICI formed a partnership with Courtaulds, who were leading suppliers of viscose rayon.
The product was badly needed to make parachutes, especially after Japan's entry into the war in December 1941 blocked supplies of silk.
Banbury was considered but the final choice was Stowmarket, Suffolk, where ICI Paints Division was already established.
[8] In November 1945, it was announced that F. C. Bagnall had been appointed managing director of the company, which was based in Coventry.
[9] In May 1947 ICI announced that they were building a new plant in Billingham to make nylon polymer.
[10] In July 1948 Courtaulds announced that the Pontypool factory was near completion but there were delays owing to shortage of construction materials.
[15] In 1950 BNS reduced their prices by more than 20% owing to increased production volume and improving methods.
This would mean retaining profits within BNS but Courtaulds and ICI hoped that they would soon receive some reward for their investment.
Du Pont had granted nylon thread patents to ICI in December 1946.
On 30 July 1952 the judge made an order requiring ICI to reassign the patents to Du Pont within 90 days.
The judge decided that it would be quite wrong for a foreign court to impose an order on a British company forcing them to break a contract which had been entered upon properly and fairly in the course of commercial operations.
[22][23] In 1953 the company provided nylon to John Southworth and Sons of Manchester to make special clothing for the Everest expedition.
[25] In 1954 the managing director Bagnall announced that the prices of all fine denier nylon yarn would be reduced by 15% and staple by 10%.
There were now some 40 different types of nylon stockings on the market including yarn as fine as 9 denier, five times finer than human hair.
[28] Also in 1957 the Melbourne correspondent of The Times reported that BNS had decided to manufacture the first nylon yarn in Australia.
Besides production, team of experts would be employed to improve the company's expertise with nylon staple.
[32] Also in 1958 BNS applied to the Board of Trade to build a nylon factory at Leigh Park, Havant, Portsmouth.
[35][36] The Secretary of State for Scotland met a deputation from Greenock Town Council to discuss unemployment there.
He said he hoped that BNS could be persuaded to make their new investment in Scotland and that a great deal of work had been done on a £6M proposal for a new dry dock in Greenock.
[41] BNS had subsidiaries abroad in: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, (Germany), United States (in partnership with ICI and Celanese) and Canada.
Elliott, Arthur (2009), History of British Nylon Spinners, Old Bakehouse Publications, Church Street, Abertillery, NP13 1EA
