New chapter in the AGA success saga

A former Masterchef contestant and a director from Jaguar Land Rover were among the invited guests as Aga Rangemaster celebrated the launch of the Aga City 60.

The 60 centimetre, two-oven model, designed in Telford, is for use in smaller properties including city apartments and terraced houses.

Production of the new models officially began yesterday, with chief executive William McGrath joined by Mike Wright, JLR's executive director and the chairman of the CBI in the West Midlands, for its launch.

Before the economic downturn, Aga was selling 10,000 ovens a year for the first time, and Mr McGrath said the City 60 is intended to drive the company to new best-ever sales figures.

More than 200 of the ovens have already been pre-ordered, ahead of their formal release into shops later this month, with buyers still to see the cookers in person.

"With this product coming out, it's our target to reach another all-time high for sales volumes," said Mr McGrath. "This is a product that can move volumes back up.

"Over the last two years we have been growing at a high single-digit rate, and that has been driven by new products. Nearly two thirds of the products we sell weren't on the market three years ago."

The new oven is aimed at delivering a similar impact for the company as the Range Rover Evoque did for JLR, which helped drive the upturn in fortunes enjoyed by the car giant by offering Range Rovers to a new market.

Aga Rangemaster, which employs 550 people in Shropshire, now hopes its products will head for new markets, including China, where it is working in partnership with the Asian cooker business Vatti, driving similar improvement in its fortunes.

The company has invested £1 million in its Ketley assembly lines, and is set to inject another £2 million into its Coalbrookdale foundry to allow it to perform more of its work own work on products.

"We have been bringing some of the casting work back in-house," Mr McGrath said.

"We like to think we can learn a few lessons from JLR's product development, and how well they internationalised the business.

"We have been quietly trying to build momentum behind sales, and JLR's is a very good lesson in explaining that this is coming, getting people enthusiastic about it."

Invited guests at the launch day in Ketley included Mr Wright, 2011 Masterchef finalist Sara Danesin Medio, and the High Sheriff of Shropshire, Robert Bland.

While Mr McGrath says the new model is suitable for villages and terraced houses thanks to its size and lack of need for a flue – allowing it to be set against internal walls – the latest cast iron cooker is likely to be popular London, and Aga has opened a new store in the city to allow it to capitalise on that potential.

It follows on from the launch of new electric models in the years since the economic downturn, with the previously unheard-of method of powering the historic ovens now accounting for a large proportion of Aga's sales.

The new oven is also cheaper than its core models, which sell for almost £10,000 – although at around £5,000 will remain beyond the reach of most.

The company's full year operating profits are expected to come in well ahead of last year's £8.2 million for 2014, driven by new product launches, after it reported a 60 per cent increase to £2.4 million in the first half.

The new model was met with resistance from some within the company, Mr McGrath said, from those who felt it was moving Aga away from its core markets.

"After 305 years, this is almost the time to release a greatest hits album, and maybe that's what this model represents," the former accountant, who has been in charge of Aga since 2001, added.

"But having a 60 centimetre product at all was a little bit controversial."