History
It's a little known fact that Herbert H. Dow, the founder of the Dow Chemical Company, was born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada in 1866.
Herbert H. Dow founded the Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan, USA in 1897, but its Canadian division, Dow Chemical of Canada Limited was created in 1942, with its first plant in Sarnia, Ontario. The first manufactured product was synthetic rubber, as natural rubber resources grew scarce during World Word II.
Dow Canada’s first female chemist, Barbara Buchanan, started with the company in 1943.
In the 1940s STYROFOAM™ brand insulation was invented by Dow in the United States, but it was not until 1963 that Dow Canada opened its first STYROFOAM™ plant.
In 1949, Dow Canada’s first president, Willard Dow, dies in a plane crash near London, Ontario.
Dow’s first presence in Alberta dates back to 1956, when a sales office opened. The Fort Saskatchewan site, near Edmonton, was founded in 1961 with the start up of two plants and it continued to grow constantly over the next 16 years.
In Weston, Ontario, near Toronto, a plant to manufacture STYROFOAM™ brand insulating boards began operating in 1963.
In 1969, Dow Canada expanded its STYROFOAM™ production with a new facility in the province of Québec.
Change and expansion also occurred at the Sarnia site. In 1973, Sarnia welcomed a world-class Chlor Alkali plant, the first Dow Canada plant designed to serve the global market.
The first Canadian-born Dow Canada president was James Hay; his leadership began in 1980.
Dow Canada started working with the Canadian Chemical Producers’ Association in 1985 to create Responsible Care®, an initiative for the safe and environmentally sound management of chemicals.
In 1998, Dow divested DowBrands, its long-standing consumer products division which had launched many household iconic products, like SaranTM Wrap* and Ziploc® bags** since the 1950s.
In 2001, Dow acquired Union Carbide which had assets located in Prentiss and Joffre, located near Red Deer, Alberta.
A 50/50 joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company and Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) of Kuwait, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, was created in 2004, forming MEGlobal Canada, with ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol operations at the Fort Saskatchewan and Prentiss sites.
In 2006, Dow Canada became an Official Supplier of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
* SaranTM Wrap is a trademark of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
** Ziploc is a registered trademark of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.