Harrisons and Crosfield Ltd , traders in tea, coffee, rubber, timber, chemicals, and other agricultural products

Harrisons and Crosfield Ltd , traders in tea, coffee, rubber, timber, chemicals, and other agricultural products

Daniel and Smith Harrison and Joseph Crosfield entered into partnership in January 1844 to trade as tea and coffee merchants at 6 Temple Street, Liverpool, under the style Harrisons and Crosfield. The partnership moved in July 1854 to 3 Great Tower Street, London, becoming from the 1860s one of the largest tea traders in Britain. In the 1890s the company admitted a number of new partners (Charles Heath Clark, George Croll, Arthur Lampard and Eric Miller) and changed the direction of its business. The company took on the blending and packing of teas, and imports from Ceylon were stored in a warehouse on Ceylon Wharf, Bankside in Southwark. The company was also increasingly involved in rubber and plantation estates in the mid-20th century, and acquired shareholdings, often acting as agents and secretaries, in a number of plantation companies. By the late 20th century, Harrisons and Crosfield managed nearly half a million acres of tropical crops in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Southern India, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The firm became a limited company under the style Harrisons and Crosfield Limited in May 1908.

Much of the company's interest in tea was disposed of in 1916 on the formation of Twining, Crosfield and Company Limited. As well as diversifying into rubber plantation Harrisons and Crosfield Limited had interests in timber (through its stake in British Borneo Timber Limited, later called Sabah Timber Company), and especially from the 1950s, palm oil, speciality chemicals and other estates agency work, including the related business from insurance and shipping. From the late 1960s the company again changed direction moving to consolidate its interests in a number of divisions, including the "Harcros" group of timber merchants and building suppliers, chemicals, animal feeds and other agricultural products. Most of the interests Harrisons and Crosfield had in individual plantation companies were merged into larger companies (e.g. London Sumatra Plantations) in the 1960s and afterwards, and those companies have subsequently been sold. The firm became a public limited company in 1982. In late 1997 the firm started the disposal of all its timber and building supplies and food and agriculture divisions, to concentrate on speciality chemicals. From January 1998 the firm has been known as Elementis Plc.

Harrisons and Crosfield established branches in the following places:
AFRICA: Nairobi branch opened in 1962/3, becoming part of Phillips, Harrisons and Crosfield from 1965 (see Ms 38092-4).
AUSTRALIA: Offices opened in 1910 in Melbourne. From 1914 Harrisons and Crosfield operated under the style Harrisons Ramsay Proprietary, with further branches in Sydney and other places (see Ms 37842-92).
BELGIUM: Office opened in Brussels in 1963 (see Ms 37090).
BORNEO: The company operated through a subsidiary company Harrisons and Crosfield (Borneo) Ltd, registered 1918 in Sandakan (Ms 37541-61). See also records of Sabah Timber Company Ltd (Ms 38103-78).
CANADA: Harrisons and Crosfield operated through offices at Montreal (opened 1905), Toronto (c 1940) and Vancouver (c 1947) (Ms 37199-207), and through a subsidiary company Harrisons and Crosfield (Canada) Ltd (Ms 37562-9). See also the records of Dillons Chemical Co (Ms 37570-1).
CHINA: Office opened in Shanghai in 1908 under the style Westphal, King and Ramsay, and from 1918 as Harrisons, King and Irwin (Ms 37642-52). See also the records of Tait and Co which operated in Taiwan (Ms 38195-204).
HOLLAND: The company operated under the style Harrisons and Crosfield (Holland) N.V., 1951-9 (Ms 37576-80).
HONG KONG: Harrisons and Crosfield operated under the style Harrisons, King and Irwin from 1946 (Ms 37642-52), and from 1963 as Harrisons and Crosfield (Hong Kong) Ltd (Ms 37581-6).
INDIA: Branch office opened in Calcutta in 1900 (under the style Lampard, Clark and Co, Ms 37914-25), and Quilon in 1911, with other offices at Calicut and Cochin (Ms 37208-50). See also the records of Davenport and Co (Ms 37462-8).
INDONESIA: Branches opened in Medan and Batavia (Jakarta) in 1910, with sub-offices at Bandoeng (Bandung) from ca. 1916, and Sourabaya (Surabaya) from c 1921 (Ms 37251-82).
JAPAN: Branch office in Kobe opened in 1917 (Ms 37283). See also the records of Jarmain, Davis and Co (Ms 37900-1).
MALAYA: Office opened in Kuala Lumpur in 1907 under the style Crosfield, Lampard and Co (Ms 37447-55). From 1921 see the records of Harrisons and Crosfield (Malaya), which also had branches at Singapore and Penang (Ms 37587-627).
NEW ZEALAND: Wellington branch opened in 1910, and from 1914 Harrisons and Crosfield operated in New Zealand under the style Harrisons Ramsay Proprietary Ltd (Ms 37842-92).
SRI LANKA: Colombo branch opened in 1895 under the style Crosfield, Lampard and Co (Ms 37447-55). See also the records of Harrisons Lister Engineering Ltd (Ms 37653-76) and Harrisons and Eastern Export Ltd (Ms 37635-41). From 1908/9 see also the records of Harrisons and Crosfield's Colombo branch (Ms 37284-309).
SWITZERLAND: Office opened in 1962 in Lausanne (Ms 37090).
TAIWAN: See records of Tait and Co (Ms 38195-204).
UNITED STATES: New York branch opened in 1904 under the style Crosfield, Lampard, Clark and Co (Ms 37456-61), from 1908 as Irwin Harrisons and Crosfield Inc, with branches in Philadelphia, Chicago and other places.
Harrisons and Crosfield also operated through a subsidiary company Harrisons and Crosfield (America) Inc of New York (Ms 37523-9). See also Harrisons and Crosfield (Pacific) Inc (Ms 37530)

Harrisons and Crosfield were appointed as secretaries and/or agents to almost all of the plantation companies in which it had a shareholding. The secretarial function was performed in London and included the provision of full management support to the boards of individual plantation companies and the administration of share registers. The overseas branches of Harrisons and Crosfield (eg Harrisons and Crosfield (Malaya) Limited) acted as agents.