 | |
| Industry | Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1952; 74 years ago (1952) |
| Headquarters | Regent Mill, Fir Street,Failsworth, Oldham, UK[1] |
| Products | Home appliances, health and beauty products |
| Owner | Spectrum Brands |
| Website | www |
Russell Hobbs is a British manufacturer ofhousehold appliances. Founded in 1952 by William Russell andPeter Hobbs, they launched the first automatic kettle in 1955, and became the primarykettle maker in the United Kingdom marketplace in the years that followed. Subjected to many corporate acquisitions through its history, its head office is currently sited inFailsworth, England, although the company has moved its manufacturing operations toChina.[2]
After serving with theBritish Army'sREME inWorld War II, William Russell (22 July 1920 – 16 February 2006), fromHigh Wycombe, joined home appliance manufacturerMorphy Richards and helped to design a pop-uptoaster, anelectric iron and ahairdryer, when working as Chief Development Engineer.Peter Hobbs (3 May 1916 – 11 April 2008), fromTunbridge Wells, was a major during the war in theRoyal Engineers, and he also worked for Morphy Richards, as manager of the South African division of the company. He had returned to the UK in 1952, after a disagreement with Charles Richards over sales policy, and worked for another company, where he was trying to design acoffee percolator, with reference to a German patent.
Later in 1952, Bill Russell had a disagreement withDonal Morphy and joined Hobbs to form Russell Hobbs Ltd at 1 Bensham Lane inBroad Green,Croydon, Surrey, near theA213/A235 junction south ofMayday Hospital, with Russell on design and engineering and Hobbs on marketing and sales.[3][4]
In 1952, they designed the world's first automaticcoffee percolator, the CP1,[5] and in 1955 they introduced the K1, the first electrickettle that switched itself off as soon as the water boiled.[6]
In 1962, they[who?] needed to expand the company to increase production and needed more capital. They were forced to sell the company toTube Investments (TI), a conglomerate of electrical appliance brands who also ownedCreda (a competitor ofHotpoint –GEC at the time owned both Hotpoint andMorphy Richards).
Production was moved toWombourne in Staffordshire, where it was shared with Creda and toBlythe Bridge inStoke-on-Trent, where it was based in a former aircraft factory later owned byIndesit. The Blythe Bridge site on was shared with Simplex Electric Co Ltd (owner of Creda), and Simplex-GE, (a joint venture of TI with GE of America) that made electrical switching equipment. Simplex also made tungsten-iodine floodlighting (halogen lamp).
Russell became technical director of Creda, then managed Turnright. As part of the Electrical Division of TI, it was headquartered atSimplex House inAlperton,Middlesex. The Domestic Appliance division of TI was later based atRadiation House inNeasden.
In the mid-1970sDimplex[when?] diversified intocoffee percolators and electric kettles due to former Russell Hobbs engineers joining the company.
The heyday of the TI Group was in 1978, but by the early 1980s, the TI Group was facing difficulties, with its workforce halving. TI Group formally referred to Russell Hobbs as TI Russell Hobbs.
TI sold off their consumer brands, with the company going toPolly Peck International, on 11 December 1986 for £12 million, along with Tower Housewares (a utensil manufacturer based at Wombourne nearWolverhampton). The subsidiary was known as Russell Hobbs Tower. Creda would be sold to GEC in June 1987. In the late 1980s Russell Hobbs sponsored sports events.
Following the collapse of Polly Peck, Russell Hobbs Tower was bought by Manchester-basedPifco Holdings on 5 April 1991. By the end of the decade, Russell Hobbs had become the most important of Pifco's various brands and product lines.[7]Salton, a US manufacturer of kitchen appliances, bought Pifco in 2001[8] and continued to focus on developing Russell Hobbs as one of the company's key brands.
In December 2007, two companies in the small household appliance business, Salton, Inc. and Applica Incorporated, merged. Applica became a wholly owned subsidiary of Salton. In December 2009, the combined company (formerly known as Salton, Inc.) changed its name to Russell Hobbs, Inc.[better source needed] Russell died on 16 February 2006 aged 85.[9] Hobbs died on 11 April 2008 aged 91.[10]
In 2010,Spectrum Brands Inc. acquired Russell Hobbs, Inc. and in 2011, the Russell Hobbs business in the UK was reorganised to become Spectrum Brands (UK) Ltd. Spectrum Brands in the UK now design and manufacture consumer products in addition to Russell Hobbs, including the brands Remington, IAMS, Eukanuba, Tetra, FURminator, Rayovac and VARTA.
Russell was in charge of product development, and Hobbs was the sales director. Russell's de facto ultimate safety test for any new product was topour half a pint of boiling gravy on it. In the late 1960s it was chiefly manufacturing automatic electriccoffee pots, vapour-controlled electric kettles, and tea makers.
The design of new jug kettles was shown in a 1983 episode of the BBC 'Science Topics', with Michael Morecroft, with new 1980s kettles being switched off by athermistor. Michael Morecroft joined as Engineering Director in 1978. There were 19 in the Engineering team.[11] The new plastic jug kettles began around 1983, and won awards from theAmerican Society of Production Engineers.[12]
The company also distributes:
1996 Millenium kettle invented with a British made, OPTEC disk and becomes the fastest boiling kettle
Metritherm furnaces [...] We had four of these furnaces to make the world leading 3 kW 'Flat Element' using 'Thick Film' Technology. Great invention developed, manufactured successfully in volume in Britain beating everyone else in the world then relocated to China by the new American owners to fail and disappear without trace.
