User:Unichive/sandbox18

The Purfleet Margarine Factory is a factory located in Essex, United Kingdom, owned by Unilever.

History
In 1916, Dutch company Jurgens Ltd began building the factory in Purfleet-on-Thames, after being approached by the British Government in the wake of the First World War. The government saw the danger of importing a vital foodstuff in the war, and wanted the company to begin manufacturing margarine in England.

By 1959, the factory employed over 1,000 workers making Stork margarine, soft drinks, and cheese.

In 1973, it was estimated that the factory could produce 10 million half-pound tubs and packets of margarine every week.

In 1994, due to restructuring within the Unilever brand, fats production was transferred from the Unilever factory in Bromborough to Purfleet, along with oil production in the following year.

Purfleet Flood
On Sunday 1st February 1953, a high spring tide and gale force winds brought mass flooding to the east of England. In the early hours of Sunday, the river wall at Purfleet was broken in four places, and floodwater covered the site at a depth of 10 to 15 feet. No workers were on site, but three patrolmen were working, and all survived.

Temporary factory headquarters were set up in the sports pavillion, and a list of emergency priorities was drawn up. These agreed that the Bromborough factory was to step up their production, that employees were not to work the night shifts, to hold up all intake deliveries due, and to deal with the river breaches as a combined local effort until outside help could arrive. They also agreed to obtain an Emergency Feeding Unit to supply meals to all people working on the river wall and site, and to advise their position to the Ministry of Food.

Work to fix the wall began on Monday 2nd February, with local industries along with the Essex River Board meeting in order to plan how best to fix it. 500 men were employed to fix the wall, and 62 barges and 4 tugs were assembled to help. The R.A.F began to take over work on the wall by February 6th. By February 3rd, the Ministry of Food was supplying food for the Emergency Feeding Unit.

By February 9th, work began on pumping 20 million tonnes of water out of the factory site. Petrol driven pumps were placed along the river wall, and with the help of the fire brigade, the latest fire pumps were installed and pipes laid across the site by a new 'floating' system. Within two weeks of the flood, the site was cleared of water. Wage records were amongst the first things to be salvaged by entering the office through the window to ensure workers got paid for the previous week's work.

On Saturday the 14th of February, the cleanup of the site began. Women workers were allowed back on site as the conditions were deemed suitable, and salvage contractors were brought in to remove heavy debris from the site. A temporary railway track was created so that drums and other material could be loaded directly into tail wagons.

Within a few days, the site was cleared of all debris. Floors and walls were scrubbed down and swept; mechanical and electrical equipment was dismantled, inspected, cleaned, and reassembled; electrical wiring was replaced and the stores, materials, and furniture was also salvaged and cleaned. Even office files, documents, and records were recovered.

Five weeks after the flood, the refining of oils began again, and within a week the refinery capacity was back to normal. By 16th March 1953, the whole site was up and running again, despite forecasts that said it would take up to 6 months to return to normal capacity.

During the 6 weeks that it took to get the Purfleet site operating again, the Bromborough site was relied upon to take up the slack and increase margarine production. Within this time frame, the Bromborough site increased its output from 100% to 224%, now covering the whole country.

Aftermath
The factory was extended in 1957, and again in 1971. By 1959, there were around 1000 workers were employed there, where they made Stork Margarine, processed cheese, and soft drinks.

Recent Years
The Purfleet factory has expanded to make some of Unilever's best-known brands, such as Flora, Bertolli, and Olivio. In 2008, around 100 jobs at the factory were lost. In 2011 and 2012, the site partook in a nationwide strike over Unilever disrupting pensions. As of 2013, the factory employed around 200 people. The factory was sold in 2017 to a private equity firm called KKR, who set up a company called Upfield to run the factory. Upfield has announced that they plan to close the factory due to high running costs and under-utlisation of the site.