The History of Robinson Brothers 1869 to Present Day

The story of RBL unfolds across three centuries:

19th Century

• 1869   Company established by the three Robinson brothers for distillation of tar 
• 1894   Registered as a private limited company

20^th Century

• 1909   New road coating composition ("Tarvia") manufactured - the car had arrived
• 1922   Formation of research department
• 1939   Rubber technical service laboratory established
• 1946   Carbon disulphide technology established
• 1950   High pressure hydrogenation to manufacture Piperidine for Penicillin G
• 1967   On-site generation of hydrogen sulphide
• 1968   Cysteamine manufacture for revolutionary anti-ulcer drug Tagamet
• 1974   First custom manufacture
• 1978   First multi-product plant centred around GL reactors and enclosed filter drier units
• 1984   Friedel Crafts reactions using aluminium chloride
• 1990   Full ISO2002 accreditation achieved
• 1992   Installation of phosgenation plant - custom manufacture of veterinary active
• 1993   First product by chiral synthesis
• 1994   Bulk handling of elemental bromine
• 1996   Novel thiolation chemistry invented
• 1997   US FDA grants approval for manufacture of a veterinary active product
• 1998   ISO9001 achieved
• 1999   Commercial scale chlorosulphonation reactions using dedicated reactor

21^st Century

• 2000   New £2m state-of-the-art waste incineration plant - ISO14001 achieved
• 2001   Installation of Kilo-Lab for small-scale manufacture
• 2002   Rebranding of company image. Installation of Wiped Film Evaporator in Pilot Plant
• 2003   Achieved ISO9000:2000 quality management standard

RBL remains an independent business, owned by the descendents of the original Robinson Brothers.