Wilhelm Grillo was one of the founding fathers of industry in the Ruhr Region. He was a man of great energy, visionary ideas and social commitment and began to build an impressive enterprise in 1842 at the age of only 23. Following an ironmonger's shop in Mülheim an der Ruhr, he founded a zinc rolling mill in Duisburg-Neumühl in 1849. Only a few years later - in 1855 - he built not only two mill trains and a gas generating system but also the first production plant for Zinc Oxide in Oberhausen.
As of 1881, the crude zinc needed by the plants in Oberhausen was produced in a proprietary metallurgical plant in Duisburg-Hamborn. Liquid sulphur dioxide and sulphuric acid were hereby produced as by-products. A rolling mill was also built in Hamborn after the turn of the century.