Croda International plc is a chemicals company based in Yorkshire in northern England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: CRDA) and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the  United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total 130... The Source by Greyworld, in the new LSE building Paternoster Square. ... The Source by Greyworld, in the new LSE building Paternoster Square. ... The FTSE 250 Index is a capitalisation weighted index of 250 companies on the London Stock Exchange. ...

Croda was founded in 1925 to manufacture lanolin. It began to expand internationally in the 1950s and became a listed company in the 1960s. During this period it acquired businesses such as United Premier Oil and British Glues but late in the 20th century it narrowed its field to specialty chemicals. Its products include: Lanolin, also called wool wax, wool fat, or wool grease, a greasy yellow substance from wool-bearing animals, acts as a skin ointment, water-proofing wax, and raw material (such as in shoe polish). ...

• surfactants which are used as ingredients for cosmetic creams and lotions.
• Dietary supplements containing specialty lipids.
• Fatty acid amides which add "slip" to plastic surfaces, so plastic bags can be easily peeled apart.

These products are sold to other manufacturing companies. Croda has factories in the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Brazil, Singapore and Japan. Surfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids. ... A dietary supplement is intended to supply nutrients, (vitamins, minerals, fatty acids or amino acids) that are missing or not consumed in sufficient quantity in a persons diet. ... A polyunsaturated triglyceride. ... In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid often with a long unbranched aliphatic tail (chain), which is either saturated or unsaturated. ... Amide functional group Amides possess a conjugated system spread over the O, C and N atoms, consisting of molecular orbitals occupied by delocalized electrons. ...

Turnover for the year to 31 December 2004 was £294.4 million. Profits were £41.7 million before tax and £26.5 million after tax.

External links

• Official site
• Yahoo profile