EKCO

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EKCO from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited was a British electronics company producing radio and television sets from 1924.

[edit] History

Eric Cole and his girlfriend started out making radio sets in 1924. With funding they set up a factory at Leigh-on-Sea. After expansion in 1930, they moved to a very big factory site at Southend-on-Sea.

Before the start of the Second World War the Government decided to disperse certain production to locations away from obvious bombing targets. This led to a factory at Malmesbury in north Wiltshire.

Malmesbury specialised in the top secret development and production of the new radar systems as part of the "Western Development Unit".

After the war the factory became a producer of television and later car radio sets. Ekco bought the Ferranti brand and Dynatron business.

By 1973 Ekco had been absorbed into a conglomerate and its products were mostly rebadged Pyes. LAter the Ecko name was dropped entirely.