Contains papers not only directly related to the company but covering Ernest Bader's political and other interests, personal papers and library items.
[Reference codes in this collection are based on previously assigned document numbers; gaps in sequences occur where duplicate material has been discarded].
Scott Bader was founded in 1921 and conventionally managed for 30 years. However Ernest Bader, the founder, was never comfortable with a capitalist governance structure. Having become Quakers, Ernest and his family believed that ethical and moral action to improve this world was vital. For many years they sought a 'third way' of distributing the capital of the company in a less divisive manner and a method by which all employees could have a 'real' say in the company. They believed that labour should employ capital, acknowledging the equality of everyone as individuals and that only a restructure of the way industry was managed would bring this about. In 1951 a radical decision was made to gift the company to the workers resulting in the creation of The Scott Bader Commonwealth.
Scott Bader still has its unique ownership and governance structure and is a succesful global chemical company manufacturing, selling and distributing a wide range of synthetic resins and polymers to many different markets.
This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/
Link to full catalogue: https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/SBC
