Friday evening February 11, 1887 five business men met in Richmond, Virginia to consider forming a paper manufacturing company. That night Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company was born and soon thereafter a factory was built on a parcel of land located on Tredegar Street between the James River and Kanawha Canal.
In the summer of 1941, F. D. Gottwald was named President of the company. Early in his tenure, new materials started entering the market that would undermine the profitability of the paper industry. As an expansion minded leader, Gottwald began looking for a partner to make polyethylene film in order to compete in the changing environment. During this search, he came across a New York based company named Ethyl Corporation.
Ethyl’s history began in 1921, when Charles Kettering discovered that a certain combination of chemicals added to gasoline could reduce engine "knock." Kettering formed the General Motors Chemical Corporation, a joint venture between General Motors and Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1923. A year later, the company became Ethyl Gasoline Corporation and, finally, Ethyl Corporation in 1942.
In 1962, under Gottwald’s leadership, Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company acquired Ethyl in what was then termed the largest leveraged buy-out on record. Popular headlines described the transaction as "Jonah Swallows the Whale." Albemarle adopted the Ethyl name and steadily increased its presence in Richmond.
After expanding and diversifying during the 1980s, Ethyl began to spin off a number of divisions. The aluminum, plastics, and energy units became Tredegar Industries in 1989. In 1993, it spun off its life insurance company, First Colony Life, and then in 1994, the specialty chemicals business was spun off as Albemarle Corporation.
As the global consolidation trend of the 1990s came to the petroleum industry, Ethyl led the charge for petroleum additives, acquiring Amoco Petroleum Additives in the U.S. and Nippon Cooper in Japan in 1992 and Texaco Additives Company in 1996. These acquisitions allowed Ethyl to expand its global presence, enhance its research and testing capabilities, and broaden its product lines while streamlining its manufacturing and support functions.
In 2004, to maximize the potential of its operating divisions --- petroleum additives and tetraethyl lead --- Ethyl Corporation transformed into NewMarket Corporation, the parent company of Afton Chemical Corporation and Ethyl Corporation.
As a result, today’s Afton Chemical is an organization that has driven costs out and efficiency in---a full-service global petroleum additives supplier committed to innovative technology and world-class research. Afton Chemical has dedicated state-of-the-art research facilities in Richmond, Virginia and Bracknell, England. Such investments in research and performance testing enhance our ability to offer new and improved technologies, superior and cost-effective product performance, and leading-edge technical support---smoothing the way for customers and consumers around the globe.