The idea of a swim in an atrium or forty winks in a snooze zone would have seemed an age away to George Paterson and George Zochonis. The P and Z of PZ Cussons met in 1879 in Sierra Leone and set up a trading post, making money from buying and selling nuts, palm oil and cloth to and from Manchester.

The business today may be markedly different, but PZ Cussons still generates more than a third of its revenue from Nigeria, where the duo opened their first office in the last days of the 19th century.

It wasn’t until the 1970s, when Paterson Zochonis bought Cussons, home to Imperial Leather, that the company entered the world of soap. Yesterday’s acquisition falls in line with PZ Cussons’s dramatic diversification in recent years. Coupled with the purchase of Charles Worthington, the group now has a full suite of personal care products that can be taken around the world. It will help to move revenue generated in Britain up from its present 20 per cent.

At the same time PZ Cussons has moved into nutrition, through a joint venture with Glanbia, of Ireland, in which it supplies Nigeria with powdered milk, and the electricals market. A tie-up with Haier, of China, has allowed PZ Cussons to also distribute a range of fridge freezers and even flatscreen TVs into its African heartland.

While forays into Russia and China have failed in recent years, analysts believe that Africa, particularly Nigeria, and Asia offer the group huge potential. At a time of economic uncertainty, these markets could help PZ Cussons to come up smelling of roses.

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