The life of Ken Wood and his involvement in the Kenwood Company was the theme of the April 4th talk in the Emsworth Community Centre. John Wood was an eloquent speaker who entertained his audience with tales of his stepfather’s amazing life. John’s illustrated talk included video clips and recordings made by Ken Wood.
Ken developed his entrepreneurial spirit at school and recalled them:
“I remember we had a mistress teaching French and ‘um’ she wasn’t very good, so I used to hop out the window during French lessons, buy some Walls ice creams for a penny a time and come back and sell them for a penny halfpenny a time.”
In 1930, aged only 14, Ken decided to leave school and join the Merchant Navy. He served for five years, during which time he travelled the world. He continued as a wheeler dealer.
“I found, almost on my first trip to Rotterdam, that I could buy tobacco (I did not smoke then!), so I bought it, and when the sailors ran out, I sold it to them at a price. I also found that leather goods in the Argentine would fetch a good price in the UK.”
One of Ken’s first jobs after leaving the Merchant Navy was working for a company that sold American radios and car radios, but he wanted his own company. On leaving, he built himself a radio set, acquired a bicycle and managed to scrape together £50. Another £50 was supplied by a young friend called Dickson and so
“by the time I was 21, I had started my 50/50 partnership in my own company.”
In the early days, to make the company look bigger than it was, Ken would often deliver orders wearing his brown overall as the ‘delivery boy’, then back at the van, he would change into his smart jacket to do the paperwork with the customer, as ‘the manager’!
During World War II, Ken worked as a research engineer on radar and gunnery training. He disposed of his first company and set up a new one in peacetime. The new business was called Woodlau, which Ken and Roger Laurence established at 79 Goldsworth Road, Woking, initially making electric turnover toasters. The range soon expanded, the company grew and in September 1948 they moved into a factory in Hipley Street, Woking, where they remained until 1962, becoming the town’s biggest employer at the time with 700 staff. The company then moved down to New Lane in Havant. Roger Laurence had left the business in 1949 and thereafter it had become the Kenwood Manufacturing Company Ltd.
The new company’s most well-known product was the Kenwood Chef. After a decade of the original Kenwood Chef, the A700, being in production Ken decided it was time to give it a facelift, and so he hired a young industrial designer by the name of Kenneth Grange who designed the iconic makeover.
In 1968, Ken received a takeover offer for the company that he could not refuse. Kenwood was bought out by Sir Jules Thorn. Kenwood is still going strong but what happened to Ken? He started another successful company in Havant, Dawson Keith, who manufactured electric generators. This company won the Queen’s Award for Export.
When Ken died on 19th October 1997, an obituary in The Daily Telegraph read: “The man who gave his name to the Kenwood Chef, mainstay of eight million kitchens.”
