Our History
100 years of Kynoch
The Kynoch brand is more than 100 years old. Kynoch has been a groundbreaker in the fertilizer industry since 1919 and has proven it can stand the test of time.
George Kynoch & Co. first opened its doors in Birmingham, England, in the 1850s, where it manufactured explosives and ammunition. In the early 1900s, Arthur Chamberlain, who was chairman of George Kynoch & Co., explored the possibility of selling explosives to the gold mines in the Transvaal. He found that dynamite was already being produced at Modderfontein and Somerset West, and that exporting explosives from Ireland would have priced Kynoch out of the market.
In 1908, the first few Irishmen left Arklow for Umbogintwini and set about clearing the bush to erect the first part of a new factory. By the end of 1908, the Umbogintwini plant was in full production. Expansions and growth characterized the Umbogintwini factory until 1918, when, at the end of World War I, there was an oversupply of explosives throughout the world.
Kynoch then built the first fertilizer plant in South Africa at Umbogintwini. The British founding father of the company, George Kynoch, died in South Africa while negotiating with the old Transvaal mining houses.
While the British wing of George Kynoch & Co. ended after World War I, the South African company Kynoch Fertilizer grew from strength to strength, becoming the brand that South African farmers countrywide remember to this very day.
