Ineos is a global chemical company owned by British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe. It operates in the oil, gas and petrochemical sector, and is thought to be the world's second largest chemical manufacturer.
Founded in 1998, Ineos was formed to acquire the former BP site at Antwerp from Inspec. Through a string of acquisitions in the early 2000s, Ineos grew in stature forming a host of companies including Ineos Nitriles, Ineos Olefins, Ineos Olefins & Polymers USA, Ineos Oligomers, Ineos Polyolefins, Ineos Refining and Ineos Technologies.
Their products cover almost every aspect of modern day life in a diverse range of industries, from automotive and electronics to consumer goods and healthcare.
More recently they have become a household name with top-level sponsorship of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, the Ineos Grenadier Pro Cycling team, and the Ineos Britannia sailing team led by Sir Ben Ainslie.
As companies come, Ineos is pretty massive. At the latest count, Ineos is made up of 36 businesses, operating out of 194 sites in 29 countries.
Its petrochemical production business alone operates from more than 30 production sites and produces more than 20m tonnes of petrochemicals per year.
As well as oil, gas and chemicals, Ineos owns consumer brand Belstaff clothing, as well as Ineos Automotive, makers of the Ineos Grenadier car, and the Ineos Hygienics brands.
Ineos and the Ineos Automotive car company are majority owned by billionaire CEO James Ratcliffe.
Born 18 October 1952, Ratcliffe is the chairman and CEO of the Ineos chemicals group which he founded in 1998 following a career that included working for Esso, chemical company Courtaulds and a US private equity firm.
Ratcliffe formed Ineos in 1998 and proceeded to buy up several unwanted companies in the chemical sector, creating a powerful business in a wide variety of segments of the petrochemical sector.
In 2018 he was named by the Sunday Times as the UK's richest person with a fortune of £21bn.
Since then, Ratcliffe has risen in prominence after acquiring a stake in Manchester United football club, adding to the other football interest of Ineos which include OGC Nice in France and Lausanne-Sport in Switzerland.
Yes. Ineos is a British company, headquartered in London.
In April 2010, Ineos moved its head office from Hampshire to Rolle in Switzerland. This is said to have saved the company millions in tax year year.
However, in 2015, a new UK headquarters was opened in Knightsbridge, London.
Yes, the Ineos Grenadier can be classed as a commercial vehicle depending on what version you have.
The Grenadier was launched as both a Station Wagon and as a Utility Wagon. Both are passenger cars with five seats, but the Utility Wagon had the benefit of having a commercial vehicle sized rear loadspace that enabled it to be registered as a commercial vehicle.
More recently Ineos has launched the Ineos Grenadier Commercial, a dedicated commercial vehicle model that is both a commercial vehicle for road tax and VAT purposes.
All models of the Ineos Grenadier are produced at a former Mercedes-Benz factory in Hambach, Germany.
The 210,000 sq m facility employs a workforce of 1,000 and is close to the German automotive cluster around Mercedes' home town of Stuttgart.
Ineos bought the Hambach factory from Mercedes-Benz in January 2021, refitting it with an investment of more than €50m.
The Grenadier line includes a new semi-automated paintshop, a new fully-automated bodyshop, and a new quality centre, it also continues to produce cars under licence for Mercedes.
During 2021/22, INEOS Automotive produced 43,500 Smart cars and 59,000 Mercedes-Benz EQA front-end modules.
