Early years Johnson Matthey traces its origins to 1817, when
Percival Norton Johnson set up business as a gold
assayer in London. In 1851
George Matthey became a partner in the business, and its name was changed to Johnson & Matthey. In 1874, the company was commissioned to manufacture the
kilogram reference standard, made from 90% platinum and 10% iridium, and held in the
Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (
International Bureau of Weights and Measures), and copies of it for international distribution. Johnson Matthey similarly also produced the
International Prototype Metre and its copies.
20th century Beginning in 1957, the company published the journal
Platinum Metals Review with the support of the
Rustenburg Platinum Mines. In the 1960s Johnson Matthey formed a subsidiary, Johnson Matthey Bankers (JMB), which took its seat in the
London Gold Fixing. In the early 1980s the bank expanded its activities outside the bullion business and started making high-risk loans. Bank assets more than doubled between 1980 and 1984, and loans became concentrated to a few borrowers, including Mahmoud Sipra and his El Saeed group, Rajendra Sethia and ESAL Commodities, and Abdul Shamji. The quality of some of these loans turned out to be worse than expected, such as the £21 million lent to Abdul Shamji of Gomba Holdings (the then owner of
Puddle Dock and the
Mermaid Theatre in London). The size of the loans grew to exceed the level of the bank's capital. (Shamji was sentenced to 15 months in prison for lying about his assets during a
High Court inquiry into the bank's collapse.) Because JMB was one of five members of the London Gold Fixing,
Bank of England officials were worried that if it became insolvent confidence in the other bullion banks would be undermined, and panic could spread to the rest of the British banking system. To prevent a wider banking crisis the Bank of England organised a rescue package on the evening of 30 September 1984, purchasing JMB for £1. Most of JMB's business was subsequently sold to Mase Westpac.
21st century In 2008 Johnson Matthey acquired
Argillon, a business specialising in
catalysts, for €214 million. In October 2010 Johnson Matthey acquired
InterCAT, a supplier of fluid
catalytic cracking additives for the
petroleum refining industry, for $56.2 million. Also in 2010 Johnson Matthey opened a new £34 million European emission control catalyst plant in
Skopje, (
North Macedonia), which produced catalysts for both light- and heavy-duty vehicles. The company was one of the first
FTSE 100 companies to produce an
integrated annual report and won the Best Annual Report in the FTSE 100 in the
ICSA Hermes Transparency in Governance Awards in 2012, which recognised how sustainability issues were 'described in a way that clearly links them to business strategy and performance, rather than leaving them in a silo or on the sidelines.' In 2014, the company was shortlisted for
Business in the Community's Responsible Business of the Year Award for its Sustainability 2017 programme. In 2015, Johnson Matthey sold its gold and silver refining operations to Asahi Holdings, Inc., a Japanese firm. In May 2025, the company agreed to sell its Catalyst Technologies arm to
Honeywell for £1.8 billion. The value of the sale represents 80 per cent of the company's market value. The sale is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026. ==Operations==