His father James Lever was a hardworking man who ran a successful wholesale grocery business in Manor Street, Bolton and the family values were based upon their strict Congregationalist background.
In 1867, at the age of sixteen, William Lever entered the family grocery business instead of continuing his studies to become a medical doctor, as William's mother had wished.
In 1885, along with his brother James Darcy Lever, he established Lever Brothers and brought soap to the masses. William borrowed £4,000 from his father for starting capital. After much market research and international travel, they began to corner the market: Sunlight Soap, the world’s first packaged and branded laundry detergent, was born.
They were one of the first companies to make soap from vegetable oils rather than tallow, which enabled the soap to lather much more freely.
Lever Brothers was made a limited company in 1890 with capital of £300,000, and by 1894, the company went public with £1,500,000 in capital. By the turn of the century, Lever Brothers became the leading soapmakers in Britain.
Lever died at his London residence in Hampstead on 7 May 1925. Lever at the time of his death was one of the wealthiest men in the United Kingdom and was the nation's second largest landowner after the crown. He rose to such prominence on the profit gained from the manufacturing of soap, the most famous of his brands being the Sunlight.
William Hesketh Lever: British businessman and founder of Lever Brothers
