Manchester Oil Refinery
of Trafford Park, Manchester
1936 Manchester Oil Refinery Ltd, (M.O.R.) was founded as a private company by Dr Georg Tugendhat and Dr Franz Kind[1]. The company began constructing a petroleum refinery to make lubricating and transformer oils[2]
1938 The refinery started operations
WWII The refinery was shut down in 1941 due to restrictions imposed by Government but soon reopened when it was shown to be advantageous to refine the products locally rather than rely on importing them.
1948 Acquired an interest in a Belgian refinery which was then increased over later years
1949 Public company incorporated; the wholly-owned subsidiaries were:
- Puremor Ltd formerly Manchester Transformer Oil Ltd
- British Transformer Oil and Lubricants Ltd
- Raven Oil Co Ltd
- Petromor Ltd
Two-thirds owned subsidiaries were:
- Petroleum Inventions Ltd
- Flexibox Ltd
1955 Had established a new subsidiary Trafford Chemical Developments Ltd and acquired the remaining shares in Petroleum Inventions Ltd[3]
1957 Acquired Marine and Industrial Lubricants from Lambert Brothers; also invested in chemical distribution companies[4]
1960 Acquired by Lobitos Oilfields Ltd which already had some refining interests[5]
By 1963 was owned by Burmah Oil Co[6]