1947
1947 was a good year for Britain: it was the year that Cambridge allowed full membership for women for the first time; the year that eight theatre companies gate-crashed the Edinburgh International Festival which was the beginnings of what is now the largest arts festival in the world – the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and the year that Queen Elizabeth II married The Duke of Edinburgh to a televised audience of 400,000. It was also the year that Kenneth Wood cleverly redesigned the electric toaster to toast both sides without touching the bread. It may seem like a simple design to us today, but it paved the way for us to revolutionise the kitchen appliances we know and love today.
Kenneth’s ideas soon outgrew his garage, taking him (and his then business partner, Roger Laurence), to his first factory in Woking and the business grew from there. We have a habit of looking forward; of driving the very best in design and technology in our products so you can make the food you love. But we wouldn’t be where we are today without decades of innovation...