About us

1856

Thomas James Smith opened a chemist shop in Hull, UK and develops a new method for refining cod liver oil.

1896

Horatio Smith entered a partnership with his uncle forming TJ Smith & Nephew.

1906

Anticipating the decline of his cod liver oil business, H N Smith buys a bandage cutting and rolling machine, turning the focus of the business to the sale of wound dressings and bandages. 

H N Smith travels to North America and secures contracts to supply Canadian hospitals with bandages. 

1907

Smith & Nephew becomes a limited company.

1914

Days after the declaration of World War 1 in 1914, Horatio Nelson Smith (the nephew of the company founder T. J Smith) met with an envoy of the French President in London. The company was awarded a contract to supply £350,000 of surgical and field dressings, to be delivered in five months.

During WW1, staff grew from 50 to 1,200.

1921

The first independent overseas branch of Smith & Nephew opens in Canada.

1928

We produced our experimental bandage Elastoplast^TM

1937

We were listed on the London Stock Exchange.

We developed a special low-temperature plaster, used by the Everest climbers on the 1953 expedition. It enabled them to send back camera films, sealed and airtight!

Post war expansion

1950s

New companies are formed in Australia (1950) and New Zealand (1953).

1951

Smith & Nephew acquires Herts Pharmaceuticals, introducing pharmaceutical and skincare products to the Group, as well as laboratory and technical resources, enabling the company to forge ahead with its programmes of product research and development.

1986

Nous avons fait deux acquisitions clés :

• Richards Medical à Memphis, USA, spécialiste des produits orthopédiques.
• DYONICS, un spécialiste de l'arthroscopie basé à Andover, USA. 

1995

Nous avons acquis la société Acufex Microsurgical Inc. et sommes devenus le leader du marché des dispositifs chirurgicaux arthroscopiques.

Nous sommes cotés à la bourse de New York.

2001

Nous sommes devenus un membre constitutif de l'indice britannique FTSE 100.

Nous avons développé l’OXINIUM^◊, un nouveau matériau qui améliore les performances et augmente la durée de vie des implants orthopédiques.

2011

PICO^◊ the first pocket-sized, single-use system, revolutionizes the negative pressure wound therapy market.

2013

JOURNEY II^◊ BCS sets a new standard in knee implant performance, designed to empower patients.

2014

Acquired Arthrocare Corp. to expand our sports medicine portfolio.

2015

Acquired Blue Belt Technologies, securing a leading position in orthopaedic robotics-assisted surgery.

2019

Expanding in technologies of the future, we acquired: Osiris Therapeutics, Ceterix Orthopaedics, Leaf Patient Monitoring System and Brainlab Orthopaedic Joint Reconstruction Business.

2020

Launched Real Intelligence and CORI^◊ Surgical System, our next-generation handheld robotics platform.

2021

Acquired the orthopaedic extremity business from Integra, strengthening our position in a high-growth segment.

Today

We have over 18,000 employees worldwide and we operate in over 100 countries.