Dr John C Taylor OBE discusses his friend and business partner Edwin (Eddie) Davies CBE, who died last week.

I first met Edwin Davies CBE in the early 1980s when I was interviewing a shortlist of candidates to join the fledgling company of Strix Ltd in the Isle of Man, manufacturing kettle controls to my inventions.

We needed a financial director / managing director designate to create a team to grow the company which now had a turnover which showed the company was solvent with great prospects.

Eddie was, metaphorically, head and shoulders above the other applicants in his obvious work ethic and intelligence. It was also good succession planning, as he was 10 years younger than myself.

Thus we started our partnership that was to last until my retirement in November 1999.

Our friendship continued from this point onwards.

He loved to pretend he was just an accountant with no engineering experience but he had come from a particularly practical background at Avon Rubber where he gained an HND firstly in engineering and then in manufacturing. With promotion blocked at Avon by young men already in place, he added to his talents by studying to become a cost and management accountant whilst at the same time studying with the Open University, obtaining a first in mathematics, specialising in statistics.

With such an able co-director to supervise sales and production, I was able to concentrate on new inventions and new production methods and automation, thereby giving Ed a stream of new products.

In the early 1980s, there were virtually no electric kettles made or sold outside the British Isles, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Hong Kong.

brands

It was firstly to these countries that Strix sales and manufacturing were concentrated. The household brands, such as Swan, Kenwood, Morphy Richards, Philips and Russell Hobbs all became Strix customers. By the mid-1980s, Strix was growing at over 25% compound rate and produced something like 7% of the Manx GDP.

Continental manufacturers such as Tefal and Moulinex in France and Rowenta in Germany were keen to export their small domestic appliances to the UK but needed an electric kettle to complete their range of products for the British market.

With my new cordless kettle and stainless steel element inventions, Ed was able to open up sales in Europe. To keep up with factory space Ed negotiated new factory capacity in Chester and I commuted weekly to ensure the new manufacturing retained the same quality and production ethos of Strix. With the growth of opportunities in Europe, Ed moved the Strix sales and marketing office from the Isle of Man to Chester and then Brussels, as our customer base changed from mainly UK to Europe.

Many of our Strix customers were moving production to China and Ed quickly realised we needed to have production in China to give our customers the ’just in time’ service that they expected. With a six-week delivery time from the Isle of Man this was not possible. We agreed to set up a factory in Guangzhou and I spent time in China ensuring that it was a true Strix quality factory.

With my inventions of underfloor heating elements and 360â° cordless kettles, Ed had grown Strix to capture something like 75% of the world kettle control market. He had a complete world kettle market model to help forecast production requirements.

I have never met a harder working man than Ed. His philosophy was, ’never pick up a piece of paper unless you intend to deal with it’ and ’never leave your office in the evening until you have dealt with every piece of paper, read every fax and later on, every email coming in or out of the company.’

He had an exceptional memory for detail and if a salesman has not filed a visit report he would chase him! He did not suffer fools gladly.

exceptonal

Ed was an exceptional businessman and entrepreneur. Having given him the inventions, he took Strix from a local Manx company all the way to an international world market leader with two billion Strix kettle controls in the field. Ed was able to grow the company without ever borrowing any money.

I am extremely proud to have had the pleasure of working with Eddie as a business colleague and a friend.

His Lancashire droll humour and glint in his eyes will be sorely missed by everyone.

Eddie’s hard work made a massive contribution to commercialising invention and innovation to a world market.

Eddie Davies CBE is pictured right at the launch in 2017 of a set of Isle of Man stamps in honour of horologist, inventor and clockmaker Dr John C Taylor OBE, pictured centre. Strix Hong Kong director Joe Szeto, is pictured left