Morphy Richards is a British brand of electrical appliances headquartered in
Swinton, in
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. Its products were formerly made at its historic home of
Mexborough
Mexborough is a town in the City of Doncaster, City of Doncaster District, South Yorkshire, England, between Manvers and Denaby Main, on the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don close to where it joins the River Dearne, and the A6023 road. It is co ...
, and in other facilities across the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. However, since the 1990s, all of its manufacturing has been carried out in the
Far East
The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...
.
Product range
Morphy Richards specialises in
toasters, hair dryers,
bread makers,
kettle
A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a device specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle''. There are two main types: the ''stovetop kettle'', which uses heat from a cooktop, hob, and the ...
s and
sandwich toasters and other household appliances. In its early stage it also made
refrigerator
A refrigerator, commonly shortened to fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermal insulation, thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to ...
s and
washer-dryer
A combi washer dryer (also known more simply as a washer dryer in the UK) is a combination in a single cabinet of an autowasher and a tumble dryer. It should not be confused with a "stacked" combination of a separate autowasher and a separa ...
s, but they were later made by
Hotpoint. Morphy Richards is owned by the Irish
Glen Dimplex electronics group. They also make
Digital Radio Mondiale
Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM; ''mondiale'' being Italian and French for "worldwide") is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for analogue radio broadcasting including AM broadcasting—p ...
-compatible digital radios, and Morphy Richards in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
still make a dry iron, one of very few companies to do so.
History

Donal Morphy of
Chislehurst
Chislehurst () is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater ...
, and Charles Richards of
Farnborough, Kent, met whilst working at
Sydney S Bird and Sons and formed Morphy-Richards Ltd on 8 July 1936 at an
oast house in
St Mary Cray
St Mary Cray is an area of South London, South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Historically it was a market town in the county of Kent. It is located north of Orpington, and south-east of Charing Cross.
History
...
in
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. Morphy and Richards were joint managing directors, and had raised £1,000 starting capital. The company began making
electric fires and, from March 1938, electric irons. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, its factories made components for the aircraft industry.
A. Reyrolle & Company took 30% of the company in June 1944 and its general manager was on the board of directors. Exports accounted for around 15% of turnover, helped by subsidiary companies in Australia and South Africa. It later opened a Canadian subsidiary. The company was producing around 2,000 irons per day.
On 1 May 1947, it became a
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...
and merged with Astral Equipment Ltd, a company in
Dundee
Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
that made
spin dryers and refrigerators. Astral became a wholly owned subsidiary. George Wansbrough was the company chairman from 1944 to 1954.
In 1949, Morphy Richards produced its first automatic toaster which used a
bi-metallic strip. It also produced the ''Simon'' electric
floor scrubber
A floor scrubber is a floor cleaning device. It can be a simple tool such as a floor mop or Scrubber (brush), floor brush, or in the form of a walk-behind or a ride-on machine to clean larger areas by injecting water with cleaning solution, scrub ...
. In 1953, it produced its first
hairdryer and claimed to have 90% of the market six years later. In 1954, it introduced a steam
iron
Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
, which were still comparatively revolutionary twenty years later.
At the same time, it introduced
electrical convector heaters and panel heaters (
ceramic heaters). By 1957, it was the United Kingdom's leading provider of
electric blankets, had produced its 10 millionth electric iron, and was producing 60% of the toasters made in the United Kingdom.
In June 1957, the company bought Yelsen Ltd, a manufacturer of electric blankets at
Ruxley in Kent, for £112,000, and it became a subsidiary. Also in June, new factories opened at the main site and in Dundee. 40% of products were exported and overseas subsidiaries had been established. Donal Morphy did not like the huge expansion of the company, but Richards thought it was too slow. Sir
Patrick Bishop
Sir Frank Patrick Bishop, Order of the British Empire, MBE (7 March 1900 – 5 October 1972) was a British advertising copywriter, barrister, businessman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician.
Early career
Bishop was born i ...
became chairman in 1957.
EMI
Morphy sold his share of the company to
EMI (Electric and Musical Industries) in August 1960, and it then tried to take over the company, as did
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...
Electrical Industries. Morphy supported the EMI offer, but Richards did not. However, EMI took over the company in September 1960. In the late 1950s, the company had developed the ''Silavent'' ventilation system, manufactured for them by Robert McArd & Co.
In December 1960, the chairman, Sir Patrick Bishop, resigned, and Richards left the board. Morphy also left as managing director, but stayed on the board. Graham Hurst became managing director. By March 1961, Richards had joined
GEC as joint managing director of its electrical appliance division. On 12 May 1961, a new £500,000 factory at Dundee built by
Holland, Hannen & Cubitts was opened by the then
Minister of Power,
Richard Wood, Baron Holderness
Richard Frederick Wood, Baron Holderness, (5 October 1920 – 11 August 2002), was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who held numerous ministerial positions from 1955 to 1974. He was distinctive in having lost both hi ...
.
The Dundee site was managed by Willis Roxburgh until July 1966, and produced around a quarter of all fridges in the United Kingdom. By 1962, it was exporting to over 120 countries. In August 1962, the company appointed
Faber Birren to give advice on colours of products. On 7 December 1962, Richards joined the board of directors of GEC.
In October 1963, it took over the record player division of EMI. On 15 November 1964, Charles Richards died aged 64 at his house in
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...
. In February 1965, there were discussions with
English Electric
The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, made munitions, armaments and aeroplanes.
It initially specialised in industrial el ...
to merge their large appliance divisions. In April 1965, Norman Tomlinson became managing director.
GEC
On 26 May 1966, EMI and AEI, owners of
Hotpoint, decided to merge their domestic appliance divisions to form British Domestic Appliances (BDA) from 1 July 1966. Morphy Richards was employing about 4,000 people. The headquarters of BDA was at
Peterborough
Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...
, the site of the main Hotpoint factory.
In September 1967, GEC announced it wanted to take over AEI and, on 24 May 1968, GEC agreed to merge its domestic appliance division with BDA. EMI would own a third, and GEC two thirds. The managing director of BDA from September 1966, Laurence Peterken, was the new managing director, but he left two weeks later. The domestic appliance manufacture was moved to the
Swinton Works at Mexborough and, in 1970, the original factory in St Mary Cray, which employed around 1,200 people, was closed.
The nearby
Ruxley factory manufactured kettles and
coffee percolator
A coffee percolator is a type of pot used for the brewing of coffee by continually cycling the boiling or nearly boiling brew through the grounds (coffee), grounds using gravity until the required strength is reached. The grounds are held in a ...
s. In January 1970, it was decided to remove the Morphy Richards brand from refrigerators. It was argued that GEC had little interest in Morphy Richards. In the 1970s, BDA was the United Kingdom's largest manufacturer of domestic appliances. BDA changed its name to Hotpoint in 1975, with small domestic appliances marketed under the Morphy Richards brand. On 25 May 1975, Donal Morphy died, aged 74.

In April 1982, the company sold Morphy Richards for £5 million to a holding company owned by
The Throgmorton Trust, Capital for Industry.
Glen Dimplex
On 10 May 1985, Morphy Richards was acquired by
Glen Dimplex of Ireland. From the end of the 1980s, the company was once again very successful with advances in electronics making their way into domestic appliances. Morphy Richards was one of the few manufacturers to sell appliances with a factory-fitted
BS 1363 plug before it became a legal requirement.
In June 2000, the Morphy Richards factory at
Mexborough
Mexborough is a town in the City of Doncaster, City of Doncaster District, South Yorkshire, England, between Manvers and Denaby Main, on the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don close to where it joins the River Dearne, and the A6023 road. It is co ...
announced the dismissal of 120 staff, citing increasingly adverse trading circumstances for its domestically made products, due to their displacement in the market by cheaper imports made in East Asia.
In 2002,
Bajaj Electricals partnered with Morphy Richards to make, sell, market and distribute products under the brand name in the
Indian market.
In October 2003, the Morphy Richards factory at
Bangor, in
County Down
County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...
, was closed, with 84 employees losing their jobs, due to manufacturing being transferred from the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
to
East Asia
East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
.
In 2007, Astral Equipment was merged with Morphy Richards and renamed Morphy Richards Astral, producing refrigerators.
In June 2022, it was reported that
Glen Dimplex had agreed to sell Morphy Richards to the Chinese company Guangdong Xinbao Electrical Appliance Holdings (Xinbao), known for its brand Donlim.
Xinbao, which manufactured Morphy Richards products in China for Glen Dimplex, bought the brand globally, but was initially taking full control of only the Chinese and British operations. The British operations are now run by Consumer Brands Ltd as the official licensee. Glen Dimplex retained the rights to distribute the brand under in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand for at least 10 years.
See also
*
Russell Hobbs
Russell Hobbs is a British manufacturer of Home appliance, household appliances. Formed in 1952 by William Russell and Peter Hobbs (engineer), Peter Hobbs, it became the primary kettle maker in the United Kingdom marketplace in the 1960s. Subj ...
, formed in 1952 by two former Morphy & Richards employees.
References
{{reflist
Electronics companies of the United Kingdom
Home appliance manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Home appliance brands
Manufacturing companies of England
Companies based in Rotherham
Companies based in South Yorkshire
British companies established in 1936
Electronics companies established in 1936
1936 establishments in England
EMI
General Electric Company
British brands