Morphy Richards - History

History

Donal Morphy of Chislehurst and Charles Richards of Farnborough, London formed Morphy-Richards Ltd on 8 July 1936 at an oast house in St Mary Cray in Kent. Morphy and Richards were joint managing directors, and had raised £1,000. It began making electric fires and from March 1938 it made electric irons. During the war its factories made components for the aircraft industry.

A. Reyrolle & Company took 30% of the company in June 1944 and their General Manager was on the board of directors. Exports accounted for around 15% of turnover, helped by subsidiary companies in Australia and South Africa. It later opened a Canadian subsidiary. It was churning out around 2,000 irons per day.

On 1 May 1947, it became a public company and merged with Astral Equipment Ltd, a company in Dundee, Scotland that made spin dryers and refrigerators. Astral became a wholly owned subsidiary. George Wansbrough was the company chairman from 1944-54. In 1949, it produced its first automatic toaster which used a bi-metallic strip. It also produced the Simon electric floor scrubber. In 1953, it produced its first hairdryer and claimed to have 90% of the market six years later, as it sold very well. In 1954 it introduced a steam iron; these would still be comparatively revolutionary twenty years later. At the same time it introduced electrical convector heaters and panel heaters (ceramic heaters). By 1957, it was the UK's leading provider of electric blankets, had produced its 10 millionth electric iron, and was producing 60% of the toasters made in the UK. It had bought Yelsen Ltd, a manufacturer of electric blankets at Ruxley in Kent, on 16 June 1957 for £112,000, which became a subsidiary. Also in June, new factories opened at the main site and Dundee. 40% of products were exported and overseas subsidiaries had been established. Morphy did not like the huge expansion of the company, but Richards thought it was too slow. Sir Patrick Bishop became Chairman in 1957.