LEC Refrigeration
| Private subsidiary | |
| Industry | Home appliances |
| Founded | 4 April 1942 |
| Headquarters | Stoney Lane, Prescot, Merseyside L35 2XW, England |
Area served | United Kingdom, Canada |
| Products | Fridges, freezers |
| Parent | Glen Dimplex |
| Website | Lec |
|
Footnotes / references LEC derives from Longford Engineering Company | |
LEC Refrigeration is a British company manufacturing refrigerators and freezers.
History
It was formed in 1942 by fishmongers Frank Purley and his brother Charles Reginald Purley (born 1910 in Twickenham) as Longford Engineering Company Ltd. Charles had moved to Bognor in 1929. It began making munitions for the war on Longford Road in Bognor, but began making experimental refrigerators from 1945. It made its first fridge in 1946, the year the Shripney Road site was obtained, with production beginning in 1947.
The name was changed to LEC Refrigeration on 13 December 1954. Around 60% of its products were for the domestic market, with the rest for commercial use. Before 1956 it was selling more products abroad than in the UK.
It was based at the Shripney Works, a 14-acre site at Bersted in the north of Bognor Regis in Sussex, off Shripney Road (A29) next to the Bognor Regis branch line. On the other side of the railway it had 33 acres of land, part of which was used as its own airfield. Charles Purley would be the company's Chairman for many years until October 1991. The airfield, codenamed EGKC with an asphalt surface, has not been used since 1994.
By 1960 only 13% of UK homes had a refrigerator, compared to 96% in the USA. Around that time Lec produced its Twelve-Six range of fridges, costing £179 each.
In 1970 the Co-op (Co-operative Wholesale Society) decided to produce its own range of freezers, manufactured by Lec, which retailed at £93. In 1973 it opened a factory in Northern Ireland. In the 1970s its freezers were the Which? best-buys.
By the early 1980s it had around 1,600 employees and had around 20% of the UK domestic refrigeration market. Its products had the Regis suffix, to denote where they were made. By the 1980s the company was known as LEC Refrigeration plc, an LSE-listed company.
In March 1993 the company laid off staff, and its workforce dropped to below 1,000, when it decided to import its compressors from Denmark instead of making them itself. From 1994 a new £35 million computerised factory was built on the neighbouring New Era industrial estate.
From August 2005 production of domestic fridges was moved to Whiston at a site off the A57 near Whiston Hospital run by Glen Dimplex Home Appliances.[1] There are plans to redevelop the Bognor site as a Sainsbury's.[2][3][4][5] The factory is due to be demolished in mid-2011.[6]
Special product division
From 1956 it opened its special products division which made fridges for hospitals, aircraft and laboratories. This is now the leading manufacturer of these types of refrigerators in the UK, trading as Lec Medical and Lec Commercial. Production of specialist fridges continued at Bognor from 2005-7, but production finally finished at Bognor Regis on 19 April 2007.[7] The division is now owned by Glen Dimplex Professional Appliances.[8]
Motor racing
LEC Refrigeration Racing was formed by the company in the 1970s, and one of the drivers was David Purley, known for the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix, and son of the company's founder.
Ownership
It became a public company on 1 September 1964. In 1988 the company had a turnover of £56 million, making a £4 million profit. Charles Purley died in December 1991. He had been appointed an OBE in the 1986 New Years Honours List.
Sime Darby
On 21 July 1994 it was bought by Sime Darby of Malaysia. The company was valued at around £21 million, making around 300,000 units a year. In the early 1990s, prior to its sale, the company had been making a £3 million loss. By 1997 it claimed to be No.2 in the UK market, with a 15% share, after Hotpoint with 18%.
Glen Dimplex
On 26 February 2005 it was bought by the Irish company Glen Dimplex.
Structure
Commercial operations are from the Glen Dimplex site at Whiston.
Products
- Fridges
- Freezers
- Wine coolers
Some of its energy-efficient products are registered for an enhanced capital allowance, which can be written off against taxable profit, as found on The Carbon Trust's Energy Technology Product List.
See also
- Local enterprise company, Scottish business support regional organisation