ENGINEERED FOR SUCCESS
How INEOS got a handle on what the world needed.
INEOS thrives on making decisions quickly. But one decision – to tackle the desperate shortage of hand sanitiser in hospitals in the UK and Europe during the global COVID pandemic – led to the birth of a new business. That new business – INEOS Hygienics – is now growing and thriving in what was a crowded marketplace.
Its no frills, high purity, hospital grade hand sanitisers, wipes, gels, hand wash and sprays are now rated highly by the public with customers around the world praising the company for providing products that are good quality and great value.
“The hand sanitiser does what it says it does,” wrote one customer on Amazon. “It’s very good quality and a perfect consistency.”
But it is not just the public who use them. Elite athletes, such as Olympian Sir Ben Ainslie and Formula One’s Lewis Hamilton, do too.
“The pandemic taught us all the importance of good hygiene,” said Lewis. “We were all washing our hands thoroughly and constantly sanitising surfaces. But being slowed down by sickness or fatigue isn’t an option for me, so hygiene has always been something that I have been very focused on. Even more so now.”
It was during the pandemic that INEOS began manufacturing hand sanitiser on an industrial scale to help fight against the disease, which was sweeping the world.
It built three plants within 10 days to directly produce, bottle and distribute three million bottles a month of hand sanitiser which it gave away to hospitals free of charge.
“We tried to do our bit while we all navigated through exceptional circumstances,” said a spokesman for INEOS Hygienics.
LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL
THIRTY-SIX years after INEOS Founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe obtained his MBA from London Business School, he returned – with a cheque for £25 million. The money meant the school – described by Jim as one of the best business institutions in the world – could remain in the grade I listed John Nash terrace at Sussex Place in Regent’s Park.
“I owe a lot to the London Business School.,” said Jim, whose donation secured the school’s future in one of London’s most beautiful and historically important buildings for the next 125 years.
Professor Sir Andrew Likierman, Dean at the London Business School, described it as an incredibly generous gift.
“His support for the school has been as transformational as his leadership of INEOS,” he said.
As a thank you, the school named its main Nash terraced building ‘The Ratcliffe’.
Over 91 million people, including future business leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs, are expected to pass through there over the next 125 years.
“They will all be seeking to have a profound impact on the way the world does business and the way business impacts the world,” said Apurv Bagri, Chairman of the school’s governing body.
Jim obtained his MBA from London Business School in 1980, while working for Exxon Chemicals as a chemical engineer.
THE INEOS OXFORD INSTITUTE
RESISTANCE to modern medicines is growing. Unless new drugs are found, the world risks returning to a time when knee replacements and childbirth were considered life threatening. INEOS Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe said, left untreated, it could become a collosal problem for the planet.
To help reverse the trend, INEOS donated £100 million to set up the Ineos Oxford Institute where the brightest minds are now looking for new human antibiotics and new antibiotics that are suitable for animals.
Experts believe that resistance to antibiotics is one of the world’s greatest global health challenges with over 20 milliion people expected to die from drug-resistant infections by 2050.
he successful development of antibiotics during the Second World War was the result of a collaboration between academia, industry and government.
“Such levels of collaboration are again necessary if we are to tackle this vital issue before it’s too late,” said Professor Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor at University of Oxford.
Dr Alice Moorey is a postdoctoral research associate at the institute.
She said it had been a privilege to work alongside chemists, microbiologsts and pharmacologists.
“Without these different perspectives, we wouldn’t know what we were missing because this collaboration produces questions that working in silos we would never know to ask,” she said. “And these questions lead us one step closer to a solution.”