E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. profile and history video
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. science-based products and services company. The company finds sustainable, innovative, market-driven solutions to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges, making lives better, safer, and healthier for people everywhere. It operates through eight segments: Agriculture, Electronics & Communications, Industrial Biosciences, Nutrition & Health, Performance Chemicals, Performance Materials, Safety & Protection and Pharmaceuticals. The Agriculture segment’s businesses deliver a broad portfolio of products and services that are specifically targeted to achieve gains in crop yields and productivity, including Pioneer brand seed products and well-established brands of insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. The Electronics & Communications segment supplies differentiated materials and systems for photovoltaics, consumer electronics, displays and advanced printing that enable superior performance and lower total cost of ownership for customers. The Industrial Biosciences segment develops and manufactures a broad portfolio of enzymes that add value and functionality to a broad range of products and processes such as animal nutrition, detergents, food manufacturing, ethanol production and industrial applications resulting in cost and process benefits, better product performance and improved environmental outcomes. The Nutrition & Health segment provides innovative solutions for specialty food ingredients, health and safety. The segment’s products include cultures, emulsifiers, gums, natural sweeteners and soy-based food ingredients, hold leading market positions based on industry leading innovation, relevant product portfolio and close-partnering with the world’s food manufacturers. The Performance Chemicals segment delivers customized solutions with a wide range of industrial and specialty chemical products for markets, including plastics and coatings, textiles, mining, pulp and paper, water treatment and healthcare. The Safety & Protection segment delivers products and services to a large number of markets, including construction, transportation, communications, industrial chemicals, oil and gas, electric utilities, automotive, manufacturing, defense, homeland security and safety consulting. The Pharmaceuticals segment markets and manufactures Cozaar and Hyzaar which are used in the treatment of hypertension. EI du Pont de Nemours was founded by Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours in 1802 and is headquartered in Wilmington, DE.“
“EI du Pont de Nemours Heritage
Dupont people have transformed their company successfully for two centuries, making dupont one of the most successful and sustained industrial enterprises in the world. Their story makes for exciting history, and this timeline tells how they did it.”
DuPont was founded in 1802 by Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, using capital raised in France and gunpowder machinery imported from France. The company began as a manufacturer of gunpowder, as du Pont noticed that the industry in North America was lagging behind Europe.
The company grew quickly, and by the mid-19th century had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the United States military, supplying one-third to one-half the powder used by the Union Army during the American Civil War.
In 1902, DuPont’s president, Eugene du Pont, died, and the surviving partners sold the company to three great-grandsons of the original founder.
The company subsequently purchased several smaller chemical companies; in 1912 these actions generated government scrutiny under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The courts declared that the company’s dominance of the explosives business constituted a monopoly and ordered divestment. The court ruling resulted in the creation of the Hercules Powder Company (later Hercules Inc. and now part of Ashland Inc.) and the Atlas Powder Company (purchased by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and now part of AkzoNobel). At the time of divestment, DuPont retained the single-base nitrocellulose powders, while Hercules held the double-base powders combining nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine.
DuPont also established two of the first industrial laboratories in the United States, where they began the work on cellulose chemistry, lacquers and other non-explosive products.
In the 1920s, DuPont continued its emphasis on materials science, hiring Wallace Carothers to work on polymers in 1928. Carothers invented neoprene, a synthetic rubber; the first polyester superpolymer; and, in 1935, nylon.
In 1928, DuPont purchases the Grasselli Chemical Company. Grasselli was a long-time manufacturer of inorganic and organic insecticides.
DuPont introduced phenothiazine as an insecticide in 1935.
In the Second World War, DuPont helped produce the raw materials for parachutes, powder bags, and tires. DuPont ranked 15th among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.
DuPont was one of an estimated 150 American companies that provided Germany with patents, technology and material resources that proved crucial in the war.
After the war, DuPont continued its emphasis on new materials, developing Mylar, Dacron, Orlon, and Lycra (brand elastane fiber) in the 1950s, and Tyvek, Nomex, Qiana, Corfam, and Corian in the 1960s.
In 1965, Stephanie L. Kwolek develops the first liquid crystal polymer, which provides the basis for Kevlar® brand fiber.
In 1968, DuPont introduces Lannate methomyl insecticide, which goes on to become one of its most successful crop protection products.
In 1981, DuPont buys petroleum manufacturer Conoco, Inc. At the time, the largest merger in corporate history. The acquisition made DuPont one of the top ten U.S.-based petroleum and natural gas producers and refiners
In 1987, Charles J. Pedersen, wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work with DuPont in describing the methods of synthesizing crown ethers.
In 1996, DuPont Dow Elastomers opens for business in 1996 as a joint venture between DuPont and The Dow Chemical Company.
In 1999, DuPont sold all of its shares of Conoco, which merged with Phillips Petroleum Company. DuPont acquired the Pioneer Hi-Bred agricultural seed company in 1999.
In October 2001, the company sold its pharmaceutical business to Bristol Myers Squibb for $7.798 billion.
In 2002, the company sold the Clysar(R) business to Bemis Company for $143 million.
In 2004, the company sold its textiles business, which included some of its best-known brands such as Lycra (Spandex), Dacron polyester, Orlon acrylic, Antron nylon and Thermolite, to Koch Industries.
In 2011, DuPont acquires Danisco, a world-leading company in nutrition and health and industrial biosciences.
In 2011, DuPont was the largest producer of titanium dioxide in the world, primarily provided as a white pigment used in the paper industry
In February 2013, DuPont Performance Coatings was sold to the Carlyle Group and rebranded as Axalta Coating Systems.
In October 2015, DuPont sold the Neoprene chloroprene rubber business to Denka Performance Elastomers, a joint venture of Denka and Mitsui.
In 2015, DuPont and Dow announce that their boards of directors unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which the companies will merge, then subsequently spin off into three independent companies.
2017 – DowDuPont merger successfully completed. The company moves forward toward intended separation into industry-leading, publicly traded companies in Agriculture (Corteva Agriscience), Materials Science (Dow, Inc.) and Specialty Products (DuPont de Nemours, Inc.); separations expected to occur within 18 months.
*Information from Forbes.com and Dupont.com
**Video published on YouTube by “DuPont“