WhereIsAtlas · ICI
What Happened to Imperial Chemical Industries?
Britain's industrial giant, maker of Dulux and countless chemicals — dissolved in the 2000s.
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was one of Britain's biggest and most famous companies, spanning chemicals, paint, drugs and materials. Through demergers and sales it was broken up, with its paint business and much else going to AkzoNobel in 2008.
The merger that made a giant
Imperial Chemical Industries was created in 1926 when four of Britain's biggest chemical makers combined. The new company dominated the British chemicals sector, producing everything from dyestuffs and fertilizers to plastics and explosives, and it became an emblem of the country's industrial power for the better part of a century.
Diversity and consumer brands
ICI's sprawling portfolio reached far beyond bulk chemicals. It created some of the best-known consumer products in Britain, most notably the Dulux paint brand, and operated major research labs whose scientists made discoveries that touched everyday life. For decades, "ICI" was shorthand for British industry.
The dismantling
From the 1990s onward, ICI was steadily broken up. Businesses were demerged or sold, and the company that remained was a shadow of the old conglomerate. In 2008, Dutch firm AkzoNobel completed its purchase of ICI's paints division and much of the remainder, at which point ICI effectively ceased to exist as an independent company.
Where Imperial Chemical Industries is now
The ICI name has largely disappeared. Its paint business lives on inside AkzoNobel as a major coatings operation, and many of its former assets now sit inside a range of other firms. What remains is a memory of one of Britain's industrial giants — a company whose scale and reach is unlikely to be seen again.
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Sources
- Imperial Chemical Industries - Wikipedia — Wikipedia (2026-09-05)
- Imperial Chemical Industries PLC (ICI) — Encyclopaedia Britannica (2026-09-05)