Albert Edwin Reed

Albert Edwin Reed (1846–1920) was the founder of Reed Elsevier, formerly Reed International, one the United Kingdom's largest professional publishing businesses. Reed was also a Wesleyan local preacher. inherited A.E. Reed and Co in 1920 when their father died.

Early life Albert Edwin Reed was born on 13 January 1846 in Cullompton, Devon. He was the third of nine children of Edward Reed, an officer of the Inland Revenue, and his wife Eliza Saunders.

Career Entering the paper industry as a boy, Albert Reed bought the Trevarno Paper Mill at Bathford in 1873, receiving substantial backing from Thomas Owen (1840-1898) and Samuel Evans (c.1817-1885). They were prominent Wesleyan Methodists who operated a drapers business in Bath. In 1876, the Trevarno business was converted into a limited company (The Bath Paper Mills Co. Ltd.), in which Thomas Owen and Samuel Evans were the major shareholders while Albert Reed, his brother William and their father were more modest shareholders. Albert continued to manage the Trevarno works until 1877, when he took over management of the Ely Paper Works in Cardiff, which was owned by Evans and Owen. Having managed and/or part-owned paper businesses up to 1894, in that year he acquired a fire-damaged building, Upper Tovil Mill, near Maidstone in Kent.

He established a newsprint manufacturing company in this mill, specializing in the production of paper suitable for halftone blocks for which there was considerable demand at the time. Under his leadership the business expanded rapidly securing an order to supply newsprint for the Daily Mirror in 1904.

By 1905, Reed's company, A.E. Reed and Co owned "five paper mills in Britain."

In 1905, Reed began to investigate the possibility of establishing a pulp and paper mill in Bishop's Falls, Newfoundland, Canada. Reed negotiated with Robert Gillespie Reid, director of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the Bank of Montreal, and owner of the Reid Newfoundland Company and the Newfoundland Railway By 1952, the Reed group included the Albert E. Reed and Co, Medway Corrugated Paper Co, Brookgate Industries, Reed Flong, Powell, Lane Manufacturing Co, London Paper Mills Co, Medway Paper, Sacks, National Corrugated Paper Co, Reed Paper Sales, and E. R. Freeman and Wescott. By 1953, Reed Paper Group consisted of London Paper Mills Co, Medway Corrugated Paper Co, Empire Paper Mills, Medway Paper Sacks, National Corrugated Paper Co, Brookgate Industries, Powell, Lane Manufacturing Co, E. R. Freeman and Wescott. worked at Reed Paper Group until his retirement in 1954. With his retirement from the company, it ended the era of Reed family control.

In the 1960s Reed Group formed a joint venture partnership with Aerlan and acquired L&P Plastics, Spicers, Wall Paper Manufacturers. In 1993 it merged to become Reed Elsivier. RELX employed about 33,000 in 2019.

Personal life Reed, who was born in Devonshire, Cullompton married Emma, who was born in Somerset, Langford. They lived at Devonshire House on Pelham Road. They had three daughters —Rosaline Emma (b.1877), Florence Beatrice (b.1879), and Dora Gertrude (b.1883), and twin sons Albert Ralph and Edward Percy born in 1885.

Reed died in Woking in 1920.

Other interests Reed was a Wesleyan local preacher, a staunch Methodist, and a philanthropist.