In 1858 Captain George Bent Ollivant set up the business later to be known as G B Ollivant and Company Ltd in New Cannon Street, Manchester, primarily to ship cotton goods to Africa and buy African produce for sale in Europe. A partnership under the name of G B Ollivant & Company was formed by his sons Alfred and Charles in 1894.
This was converted into a limited liability company in 1900. Initially Ollivants sold basic commodities: textiles, earthenware, iron sheets, beer, provisions, soap and beads. A ‘factory’ was established at Lagos c.1880, branches were opened at Kano and Zaria in 1913, Jos in 1917, Kaduna in 1927, and Gusau and Maiduguri in 1928. Other branches later include Badagry, Ilorin and Ibadan, and in places such as Epe and Ejirin which were used to ship palm oil and kernels, and to serve Ibadan and Ijebu with imported merchandise. In eastern Nigeria under the Oil Rivers Protectorate, the lack of land communications led to the establishment of trading stations on river banks at Calabar, Opobo and Abonema. Later ‘line’ stations linked by railways were set up at Umuahia, Nsawam and Aba. By the 1950s the network numbered 58 branches in Nigeria.
The company was purchased by UAC in 1933 and reorganised. On 30 September 1933 it was incorporated as Ollivant’s (West Africa), but was immediately renamed G B Ollivant Ltd by a Special Resolution of 6 November in the same year. In 1954 the Nigerian operation was converted into a locally registered company G B Ollivant (Nigeria) Ltd. The company was subsequently amalgamated with UAC Group and was dissolved on 30 September 1980
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