In 1983, Ponds India Limited purchased a second-hand thermometer plant owned by Cheseborough Ponds Inc. in Watertown, New York, and relocated it in Kodaikanal. The company came into the possession of the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever in 1997, when Ponds India merged with Unilever's subsidiary HLL. - http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2017/stories/20030829001808200.htm