William Ransom & Son plc ('Ransom') is the UK's oldest independent pharmaceutical company. It was founded in 1846 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, by William Ransom, a Quaker philanthropist and botanist. William was the first of four generations to run the business and published important early research into the analysis of botanicals.

Today, over 160 years later, the Group has built a substantial natural consumer healthcare business which benefits from Ransom's heritage of natural product development and research.  This work is sustained by Ransom's team of natural product chemists, pharmacists and food technologists. It is also supported by the Group's recent major investment in the establishment of a centralised distribution warehouse and new manufacturing facilities for both botanical extraction and finished pharmaceutical dosage forms.

The Ransom Group now has three major activities:

Consumer healthcare - the Group owns a range of consumer healthcare brands primarily with a natural focus (such as Health Perception, Optima Health, AloeDent, Radian B and many others) and markets them in the UK and overseas.  [Go to CONSUMER HEALTHCARE].

Contract manufacture - the Group is a specialist manufacturer for itself and for contract customers of finished pharmaceutical products.  [Go to RANSOM PHARMACEUTICALS].

Botanical extracts - the Group produces and develops botanical extracts for use as active ingredients in pharmaceuticals and in food and drink products around the world.  [Go to RANSOM NATURAL PRODUCTS].