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Pears transparent soap is a brand of soap first produced and sold in 1789 by Andrew Pears at a factory just off Oxford Street in London, England. It was the world’s first transparent soap. Under the stewardship of Thomas J. Barratt, A. & F. Pears Ltd. company initiated a number of innovations in sales and marketing. According to Unilever records, Pears Soap was the world’s first registered brand and is therefore the world’s oldest continuously existing brand. 
A box and bar of Pears soap (75g) History 
Andrew Pears, the son of a farmer, was born in around 1770 and moved from his native Mevagissey in Cornwall to London in about 1787 to train as a barber. He completed his apprenticeship in 1789 and established a barber’s shop in Gerrard Street in Soho and began to produce cosmetic products. At that time Soho was a wealthy residential area and Andrew’s clientèle included many wealthy socialites who took great pride in their appearance. The fashion amongst the wealthy of the period was for pristine white (alabaster) complexions; tanned faces were associated with those who laboured out of doors. Andrew found that his powders and creams were frequently being used to cover up damage caused by the harshness of the soaps and other beauty products (many of which contained arsenic or lead) that were in general use at the time. Pears began to experiment with soap purification and eventually managed to produce a gentle soap based on glycerine and other natural products. The clarity of the soap gave it a novel transparent appearance which provided a marketing advantage. To add to the appeal, Andrew gave the soap an aroma reminiscent of an English garden. In 1835, his grandson Francis Pears joined the business and created the company A. & F. Pears Ltd. In 1838 Andrew Pears retired, leaving Francis in charge of the company. In 1851 the company was awarded the prize medal for soap at The Great Exhibition. Francis’ son-in-law Thomas J. Barratt, sometimes referred to as the father of modern advertising, eventually managed the firm. In 1862, production of the soap moved to Isleworth, and three years later Francis’ son, Andrew, joined A. & F. Pears Ltd. as joint proprietor and ran the factory, whilst Thomas ran the head office in London. In the mid 1910s, A. & F. Pears Ltd. became part of Lever Brothers and moved production to Port Sunlight in north west England. Pears soap is now made in India by Hindustan Lever a company in which Unilever controls a fifty-two percent stake From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : Manufacture of soap and detergents, cleaning and polishing preparations, perfumes and cosmetics |
