Heritage trail

Leading range cooker brand Rangemaster refuses to rest on the laurels of its cast-iron heritage. By extending its ‘family’ with built-in ovens, hobs, dishwashers, sinks and refrigeration, its future is very much on the front burner

Queen Victoria had one, the King of Italy had one, and there is one standing imperiously in the reception of Rangemaster’s Leamington Spa factory: the Kitchener range cooker is imposing, an original cast iron heat source which dates back to 1830, and to the beginnings of this very British company. 

“It all starts with the Kitchener,” explains Mike Bufton, md of the Aga Rangemaster Group. “It revolutionised the whole industry, because one central heat source fed all the hot plates and ovens in the cooker.” 

In fact, the design was so revolution­ary, it won a much-prized gold medal at the 1851 Great Exhibition.

It was in 1777 when the enterprising John Flavel set up a foundry specialising initially in ‘vapour baths’, inspired by the spas of Leamington, before moving into cookers.

The Rangemaster factory today remains on the site of Flavel’s mighty Eagle Foundry, but now it’s a modern plant, the recipient of a £3m upgrade three years ago, and packed with the latest robot machinery and laser-cutting equipment, ready to take on the manufacture of the company’s newly-acquired Mercury brand, alongside Rangemaster and Falcon. 

So just how relevant is the history to today’s company? Bufton, although keen to emphasise the forward-looking focus of the brand, admits that the past remains highly significant. 

“With our history comes a great deal of knowledge and experience of how cookers are developed, designed and manufactured, and all that feeds into our brand values,” he says. 

The Group’s name, Aga Rangemaster, carries expectations of traditional values and dependability, a fact not lost on marketing director Richard Fozard, who emphasises the considerable part Rangemaster plays in the Group’s success: “Rangemaster is on a par with, and is as important to the Group, as the Aga brand,” he explains. 

Both colleagues believe Rangemaster products are widely regarded as high quality and well designed, representing value for money. “I think that ‘Made in Britain’ is a plus: people generally respect that if things are made in Britain they will be a good quality, well-engineered product,” says Bufton. 

 “We’re not a gimmicky brand. We try and find things that really work for people,” he continues. 

Rangemaster is a company with an entire ‘customer needs understanding’ department, which devotes itself to researching its customers’ requirements.  

“We question both consumers and our trade customers to really try and get to a fundamental understanding of what it is consumers are looking for,” explains Bufton. “It drives our product development process.”

Although the Aga Rangemaster Group includes established names like Falcon, Rayburn and La Cornue, the Rangemaster brand remains the market leader in the range cooking arena. 

In fact, says Fozard: “Rangemaster is the biggest part of the business in the Group’s appliance division, in terms of both volume and value.”

With current market conditions remaining tough, the Aga Rangemaster Group’s overall trading numbers were down 20% in terms of year-on-year comparison for sales, with turnover to the end of 2008 at £279m, and pre-tax profit down by 50% to just over £40m. 

The first half of this year saw the Group announcing a like-for-like fall in revenue of 19% to £118m, and a pre-tax loss of £2.4m for the six months to 30 June. 

Bufton explains, however, that figures for the Rangemaster brand itself compare favourably with other parts of the Group: 

 “Our range cooker business has held up reasonably well, even though sales are down overall,” he says, explaining that 68,000 range cookers were sold in 2008 as compared to 76,000 in 2007. 

“We’ve continued to work well with our retail partners and, as a result, we’ve grown our market share over the last six to nine months,” he continues. 

The purchase of the Mercury and Thermastone cooker brands from Lincat Group, announced at the beginning of September, is likely to strengthen its market position still further. 

Bufton attributes this growth in market share to successful promotions – how many other range cooker companies have offered free dishwashers and taps? – to its ‘design centre’ concept which encourages retailers to have a minimum number of cookers on display; its im­proved leads management system, and its range of complementary products, including hoods, splashbacks, refrigeration, built-in ovens, sinks and dishwashers. “That came from under­standing our customers: we realised that they do want their key appliances to match,” says Bufton. 

The export market has also contributed to Rangemaster’s growth, says Fozard, comprising nearly 20% of its turnover, with a focus on the US, Holland, New Zealand, Australia and France. 

Plans are afoot to introduce more complementary products, and to improve and extend the collection of range cookers. Says Bufton: “Our business has been growing strongly since 2002 and our intention is to return to strong growth once the green shoots of recovery turn into something more substantial. We’ll be ready for the recovery when it happens.”