The company merged in 1960 with Pye to become British Electronic Industries Ltd, which was purchased by Dutch firm Philips in 1967, with the EKCO brand disappearing from brown goods during the 1970s.

The company's founder Eric Kirkham Cole was born in July 1901 at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, and was educated at Southend Day Technical School, followed by a three-year apprenticeship.

[2][3] Cole and his future wife Muriel Bradshaw started out making radio sets in 1922 in a rented room in Westcliff-on-Sea, at a rate of about six a week, which were all battery powered as per the norm at the time.

[4][3] William Streatfield Verrells, a schoolmaster and freelance journalist from Southend-on-Sea, wrote an article in a local newspaper asking if it was possible to power a radio set from the mains electricity supply rather than batteries.

[2] With the extra funding that was raised, the company set up a new factory behind 803-805 London Road, Leigh-on-Sea in 1927, employing around 50 people.

[3] The company suffered a major financial setback in 1932, when a fire swept through its research and development laboratories.

[7] The company employed architects such as Serge Chermayeff and Wells Coates to design its bakelite radio cabinets.

Although the system showed great promise, its development was halted by the Second World War, and not resumed postwar.

[14] Before the start of the Second World War, the Government decided to disperse certain production to locations away from obvious bombing targets.

Less than a year later, the empty factory was re-equipped to make wiring looms for aircraft such as the Avro Lancaster.

In addition to radar equipment, Ekco also manufactured the ubiquitous R1155 and T1154 aircraft radios at its Aylesbury shadow factory.

Ekco carried out extensive development work on both units before putting them into production, significantly improving on the original Marconi design.

46 portable man-pack radio, and large numbers of these were made at the company's Woking and Southend-on-Sea factories.

In 1943, Sir Stafford Cripps, then minister of aircraft production, described Ekco as "one of the best, if not the best, units in the country producing wireless apparatus".

[27] In 1960, a new factory was opened in Rochford, with the manufacture and development departments at Southend and Malmesbury being relocated to the new site.

By the mid to late 1950s, E. K. Cole had grown to be one of the largest producers of industrial plastics in Europe,[36] purchasing companies such as Kilgore in 1955.

[36][40] The company provided 800 slimline toilet seats for the cruise ship SS Oriana in 1959, with many hotels and public organisations ordering there products.

[2] The company would develop further products including electric blankets,[53] Panelec solid embedded floor warming system,[54] Greenhouse heating,[55] Teamakers and Hostess trolleys.

[62] Philips created Pye Holdings to manage the group, and in 1976 completed the purchase of the remaining shares.

The main factory at Southend-on-Sea was, after being sold to the Access credit card company, demolished to make way for a housing development.

[67] Southend Museums Service is home to the world's largest collection of Ekco material including radios, television sets, electric heaters and blankets, bathroom accessories, domestic design, kitchenware, and a large archive of documents and ephemera.