Cast Iron Ranges How AGA Became an Icon

shaPiNg ThE fUTUrE
W
. T. WREN’s ability to see how the future
was shaping up and his skill in spotting
talent was so nely honed that he quite
simply changed the way people lived and –perhaps
even more surprisingly – the eect can still be felt
today.
Wren was born at the turn of the century into a poor,
working class family, a fact he never forgot. He joined
the Chubb & Sons Lock and Safe Company as an
oce boy, but graduated to act as a representative in
India. From Chubb he went to Bell's Engineering
Supplies where, in 1929, he was put in charge of
selling the rst AGA cookers in Britain.
Such was his success that in 1932, when Bell’s became
AGA Heat Ltd, Wren was its MD, a role he still held
in the 1950s. By then, via a time as sales director, he
had become Managing Director and later Chairman
of the parent company, Allied Ironfounders Ltd.
He was a member of the Council of Industrial
Design (later to become the Design Council) and
his obituarist noted his unusual ability to see the
importance of design: “He was a man who
saw the value of high standards of industrial design
linked to expert salesmanship and social purpose at a
time when such attitudes were rarely held, let alone
applied to a large commercial undertaking.”
1
As well as realising the importance of great design,
Wren also understood the value of approaching mar-
keting from an entirely new angle and this, combined
with his ability to bring together interesting people,
really were at the forefront of the success of the AGA
cooker, turning it from a simple domestic appliance
into the icon it remains today.
In a strategy paper from 1933, Wren demonstrates
his innovative approach to marketing. He wrote…
“Words are sickeningly inept instruments of enthusiasm.
But perhaps, helped out by the photographs, I have given
you a fairly complete picture of this cray cooker.
“If you visit an AGA Showroom anywhere you will find
out a lot more and, more important still, you will get
what I cannot give you, the spirit of the AGA.”
Fieen years aer the introduction of the AGA to
Britain, Wren – who would be driven everywhere
in his Rolls-Royce with the licence plate AGA 1 –
was clearly aware he and his team had achieved
something special and signicant. He recognised that
the cooker had achieved a “unique place in the sun”
and had become a household name, an eponym
for all range cookers.
Wren returned from the war in 1945. In a report
written for the Executive Board, A Wider Base for
AGA, he described the progress the AGA cooker had
made during his time at the helm:
“It is now 15 years since the AGA was rst introduced
to this country...it has gained a unique place in the
sun and, in a certain eld, is a household word. No
other domestic appliance in the generation has
achieved so well a foothold. ose engaged in
launching it were...of the ‘traditional’ trade approach
for a product of this type; and probably just as well,
for had they followed the traditional line, it is
doubtful if AGA would have survived the course.
But it did survive and made so serious an
W T WREN
AGA Heat Ltd
managing director
Leader and innovator
Second World War
agent
Managing Director of
AGA Heat Ltd from early
1930s to 1950s, also
becoming Managing
Director and Chairman
of parent company Allied
Ironfounders. Through
the 1930s W.T. Wren
pushed the AGA cooker,
recognising its potential
impact. He said: “Owners
come to talk about and
regard their AGA as
though it were almost
a member of the
household – a fond
personality which has
won their affection.
Servants love it…so do I”
He felt so passionately
about the AGA that he
formed one of the
greatest cross-disciplinary
teams in UK industrial
history and expanded
across the country by
building a strong group
of registered distributers,
largely family concerns
and some with long and
important histories of
their own.
Every now and then someone captures the zeitgeist so perfectly they
become the centre of something truly extraordinary. W. T. Wren – or
‘Freckles’ as he was known – was one such man…
How e AGA Became An Icon 11
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