Summary
Reckitt, whose portfolio of familiar hygiene, health, and nutrition brands includes Dettol, Durex, Harpic and Lemsip, was established in Hull in 1840. It grew to be an international business by the 1880s and today is a FTSE100 company. Reckitt still maintains a significant presence in the city, where many of its products are designed and manufactured.
Reckitt’s archive and wider heritage collection, kept at the Hull site, had not always been seen as a core part of the business. However, the appointment of a Heritage and Stakeholder Engagement Advisor in 2023 led to a reappraisal of these assets and initiated significant improvements in the care and management of the collections, with further work planned.
The collection was established in 1996 to record and preserve the company’s history. Before 2023, the collection grew in an ad hoc manner, similar to the development of a community archive. It includes a mix of traditional paper-based records, product samples and packaging, art, textiles and promotional items from global sites and marketing.
Reckitt had always used the collection to support internal engagement as well as supporting the legal and marketing functions; a timeline on Reckitt’s website had for many years also given external audiences an indication of its rich history. However, the engagement of a Heritage Advisor enabled Reckitt to consider how it could better use its history and build greater familiarity and understanding of its heritage within the company.
Document and product display, Reckitt. Image courtesy of Hull News & Pictures Ltd/Reckitt.
Challenges and opportunities
The Heritage Advisor, Grace Chapman, quickly identified a critical need to build a foundation of specialist knowledge relating to archival practice and to make improvements to the physical environment in which the collection was kept. Some items showed evidence of pests and mould, and there was a danger of further damage to the wider collection from these two sources if items were not isolated and the causes of these issues addressed thoroughly. Historic film material also required treatment and archival boxes needed to be purchased to protect unboxed material.
In seeing the scale of the challenges, engaging with colleagues at other business archives, including Unilever and GSK, proved to be invaluable. This provided useful information and context about their growth and development, including the challenges they had faced and the approaches taken. These conversations, alongside advice from The National Archives, helped Grace with the creation of a plan to address the immediate priorities. Highlighting the implications of failing to tackle the most pressing issues proved to be an effective way of building momentum with senior managers.
A key tool used by the Heritage Advisor to evidence the need for internal funding for improvements was the Archives and Records Association’s Resilience Indicator. This is a self-assessment tool, designed to assess the resilience of an archive or records management service through a series of questions relating to organisational health, collections, and stakeholders.
It allows an organisation or archive service the opportunity to benchmark itself and check whether it has the appropriate policies, plans and procedures in place for its archives, as well as whether it has the necessary foundations of governance, is engaging in forward planning, and is engaging effectively with its stakeholders to ensure the continued development of its archive provision.
The Resilience Indicator closely aligns with the Archive Service Accreditation scheme, the UK standard for archive services, which serves as a framework for good practice.
The Resilience Indicator produces a detailed breakdown of the results, including visually in the form of graphs and pie charts, and allows services to focus on aspects that are highlighted as being ‘vulnerable’ or ‘of concern’. Completing the assessment and using the Indicator’s results was an integral part of the plan to secure the future of the archive at Reckitt. The Indicator was used as an objective tool, reinforcing evidence presented to senior managers, demonstrating what was needed to make improvements.
The wider business case and plan highlighted the need for a long-term vision for heritage to better utilise it to its full potential and protect it for the future. The data provided invaluable support, and the plan presented by Grace was fully accepted by senior management.
“I always felt we had a very strong history and significant community footprint, equal to any of our peers. However, at times we struggled to capitalise on it. Since 2023, our Heritage strategy has been transformed thanks to Grace’s leadership and support from The National Archives.”
Peter Edwards, Global Head of Policy & Stakeholder Management at Reckitt
Outcomes
Whilst the work is on-going, the simple process of opening every box within the collection to see what it contained and its current condition helped staff to gain a familiarity with the material, and to understand the scale of issues with the condition of items. This process also allowed duplicates to be removed and information to be collated for locations control.
As well as funding, critical measures to stop pests and mould and provide better conditions for the archive and wider collections, the internal funding also allowed a Consultant Archivist to be brought in to provide professional archives-specific oversight of the project. This specialist input was integral to the creation of an appropriate Collection Development Policy, for example, and ensured archives-specific needs and considerations were fully integrated into long-term plans. Additionally, another professionally qualified archivist was also brought in to work specifically on cataloguing the archive collection, to ensure this was carried out to the International Standard for Archival Description (ISAD(G)).
The leadership team at Reckitt’s Hull site has actively bought into the reinvigorated vision for the collection and continues to support the project. Many colleagues from the Hull site have also volunteered to help research, catalogue, and re-box the collection, as well as assisting in its relocation to a more suitable space. This was facilitated via a scheme that allows staff to do two days of volunteering a year.
“A great day volunteering at Reckitt Heritage. A lot of fun and hugely informative on products, past and present. A nostalgic trip down memory lane for me especially sifting through product information from previous products I have worked on.”
Debbie Gould, Reckitt Team Secretary
One recent project, led by the Hull Women@Reckitt committee, has resulted in artworks depicting women from the Heritage Collection being added to the walls of the Reckitt Humber Suite alongside portraits of members of the founding family: James Reckitt, Francis Reckitt and Isaac Reckitt.
In addition to the oil paintings, historic photographs from the archives have been digitised to show women in science, manufacturing, healthcare, sports and leadership. This was possible only thanks to the work to preserve and catalogue the archives, meaning that the photographs could be identified and utilised in this way.
What was learned from the process?
The funding secured demonstrated the value placed on the archives and wider heritage collection by Reckitt today. The use of the sector-specific Resilience Indicator alongside presentation of vivid examples of the challenges faced proved to be an effective combination when presenting a plan to address the issues identified.
The allocation of funding allowed some momentum to be established; once changes had begun to be implemented and were seen to be making a difference it became easier to highlight other opportunities. Further advocacy and funding supported the development of a display area at the main reception which also serves to raise the visibility of the archive within the business. This has been equipped with nine museum-quality display cases providing an opportunity to show the origins or development of some of Reckitt’s brands.
The Heritage Collection is now more visibly integrated into the business, including the induction programme for all staff working at Hull. This serves as a useful introduction to colleagues and often leads to team tours, the donation of material to the archive and offers to volunteer. For example, following a team-tour, the talent acquisition team used heritage material in external recruitment advertising.
“The digitisation, cataloguing, and accessibility of the archive material has significantly enhanced our ability to leverage the rich heritage of Dettol throughout various initiatives, fostering a sense of pride and continuity. We’ve highlighted the brand’s history at senior leadership events, drawn inspiration from past successes during innovation days, and engaged customers through livestreaming sessions from our museum as part of our China sales strategy. This increased accessibility opens up new creative and strategic opportunities we’re excited to explore.”
Oumou Mangassi, R&D Director Dettol Surface Care, Laundry & Out of Home
Key advice
Engaging and consulting with senior leaders in the organisation, adopting a policy of “be seen and be heard”, proved to be very effective. Throughout this process it was important to show colleagues highlights from the collections – whether it was items relating to a particular brand or other items of interest and how the collections could help the business with its current activities.
Grace noted that it can be easy to overlook or forget the considerable experience amongst colleagues in other business archive services. Having the courage to ask others for their input can provide alternative perspectives or potential strategies to adopt. The support received can be repaid by helping another colleague when they need it.
The improvements to collections management and collections information has enabled Grace to support a range of other projects and initiatives. One example of using the collections to engage users in new ways was the creation of an ‘escape room’ activity, originally developed for a global science symposium. Groups are challenged to find a stolen Reckitt recipe book. They complete a series of puzzles and challenges with the final objective being to release the book from a locked box. The activity has since been requested for team building sessions.
How will this work be developed in the future?
There is an intention to return to the Resilience Indicator two years after its initial use to review the progress made and to inform next steps.
A programme is being put together for the display cabinets, whilst collections management systems and digital preservation have been identified as priorities for the next tranche of work. Securing Archive Service Accreditation is seen as a long-term objective.
Find out more
Relevant resources
The National Archives’ guidance on Advocating for your archive
Archives and Records Association’s Resilience Indicator (PDF, 152 KB)
The National Archives’ Managing mixed collections guidance (PDF, 2.6MB)
The international standard for archival description – ISAD(G). The Archives Hub has an introduction to ISAD(G).