Kenwood Limited began with Kenneth Maynard Wood, from whom the company name also came. Before it was called Kenwood, the company was first Woodlau Industries in 1947, a time when Kenneth Wood worked with a colleague called Roger Laurence. Their first location was in Woking, and their first product was the A100, a turnover toaster. When Laurence left the company, Wood renamed it and relocated to Havant, UK. One of the brand’s best and most-known products is the Kenwood Chef, a food mixer launched in 1950.
Despite starting out as an independent company, Kenwood began operating under the De’Longhi Group in 2001, shortly after founder Kenneth Wood died. The firm has also launched several firsts in the 21st century, like the Cooking Chef XL and Titanium Chef Patissier XL stand mixers released in 2020, which integrated touchscreens and app accessibility. Its other products include hand mixers, mixer attachments, kettles, toasters, and blenders.
Kenneth Wood, Founder of Kenwood
Kenneth Maynard Wood, born in October 1916 in Lewisham, London, was the grandson of a confectionery manufacturer. He joined the merchant navy at fourteen years old in 1930 and then took accountancy and electrical engineering. By 1936, he already has his first company, Dickson & Wood, which sold, installed, and repaired radios and televisions.
Wood joined the Royal Air Force in 1939, becoming an engineer at the Admiralty, where he developed radar and electronic controls. Ever the businessman Wood established Woodlau Industries in 1947 after the war with Roger Laurence, a colleague he met during the war. Set in Wood’s garage in Woking, their company produced appliances. Their first launched product was the A100 toaster that could turn toast automatically.
It was followed by the A200 food mixer, which is a predecessor of the Kenwood Chef food mixer that came out in 1950. This kitchen machine launched at the Ideal Home Exhibition and initially had only three speeds. However, with how much time it helped kitchen users save, the device sold out within a week and brought back a 1.5-million-pound turnover. The Kenwood Chef food mixer became a key product in Kenwood’s history thanks to its then-ground-breaking ability to slice, chop, and peel.
Some years after the foundation of Woodlau, Roger Laurence left the company. This change pushed Wood to change his company name to Kenwood Manufacturing Company Ltd. The company also switched its headquarters from Woking to Havant in Hampshire from 1960 to 1961, a place where it could accommodate a workforce of 700 people and produce more kitchen appliances.
Following this immense success in the company’s history were more kitchen products that pioneered design and functionality. Some of those products were the first in the world to have electronic speed control after the firm released this feature in 1973. The brand launched its first food processor, the Kenwood processor de-luxe, in 1979. This new machine helped save time, thanks to its ability to chop, mix, and process foods quickly. It even came with several attachments with various functionalities.
Becoming a De’Longhi Subsidiary
For the next several decades, Kenwood Limited stayed on track, releasing and improving its kitchen devices. In 1989, it built its first factory in China. Since then, the company has manufactured and imported its products from China. In 1997, its founder Kenneth Wood died at 81 due to an illness.
Four years after Wood’s death and just in time for the turn of the century, Kenwood Limited joined the De’Longhi Group. It is an international Italian home appliance group that bought out several appliance brands. The Kenwood purchase in 2001 cost the De’Longhi brand £45.9 million or about $66.7 million. The acquisition also meant that De’Longhi had access to Kenwood’s Chinese factories. De’Longhi retained its engineering and design teams in Italy while its product manufacturing occurred in China. In 2009, Kenwood invented the Cooking Chef, a stand mixer with a built-in heating element allowing for simultaneous cooking and mixing.
While the company remained largely silent on the global stage in the next decade, an interesting event occurred in 2013. Kenneth Grange, the original designer of the Kenwood Chef, was knighted for services to design during the New Year Honors of 2013. Kenneth Grange hadn’t only designed the Kenneth Chef but has also created kettles for Kenwood Limited, washing machines for Bendix, pens for Parker, and postboxes for the Royal Mail.
The company launched Chef Sense in 2014, which connected the brand further with customers. This new kitchen machine could mix, knead, whisk, and fold. Five years later, during its 70th year anniversary, the company launched its first app-controlled product, the kCook Multi Smart. It was a connected robot that provided assistance in the kitchen through recipes. It had an integrated scale and was accessible through an Android or iOS smartphone. It could also do other tasks older Kenwood all-in-one machines could do, like heating, mixing, chopping, kneading, whisking, steaming, and beating.
The small kitchen appliance company entered the 2020 era with a brand-new product that integrated touchscreen control into its specialties. Its newest launched products were the Cooking Chef XL and the Titanium Chef Patissier XL stand mixers. These kitchen machines also had app connectivity, allowing users to control them from across the kitchen, in the dining room, or even from outside the home.
Kenwood Limited Acquisitions and Subsidiaries
Our research showed that Kenwood Limited didn’t buy out or acquire any company or firm as a subsidiary.
Major and Devastating Scandals
The company Kenwood Limited has no major scandals or issues that we could find in our research.
Kenwood Limited during the Pandemic
Like all other companies during the pandemic, Kenwood Limited experienced an initial crash in 2020. Yet, as more people stayed indoors, the demand for small household and kitchen appliances grew, which included many of Kenwood’s products. According to the De’Longhi report, their revenues for cooking and food prep products increased 10.2% organically, with Kenwood brand machines closing the year strongly with its sales increase.
Considering the public’s expectations of smart electronics, the company’s release of the Cooking Chef XL and Titanium Chef Patissier XL had great timing. They didn’t only present a smart kitchen feature but also let users save time and effort in their household activities.
What Does Kenwood Limited Cover Today?
The company has stuck to its roots, improving small kitchen appliances and machines with digital and electronic integrations. Today, the brand’s top products include stand mixers, food processors, and mixer attachments. Its webpage provides several recipes for which you can use its other products to create. These other products are hand mixers, kettles, toasters, and hand blenders.
