How much do you know about Dualit?
There is probably a few things you know, such as we are a family
run business and we know quite a lot about toast, but probably more
that you don't!
Our team have put our heads together and looked back over the
last 70 years to come up with 70 facts about our company. We have
covered everything from how many toasters we make in a week to
movies our products have appeared in. Read more about our 70th Anniversary year. Have fun
reading; we think some of these may be surprising!
- Max Gort-Barten, the founder of Dualit was born in Germany in
1914
- Max found himself in England as WWII broke out. After five
years in the British army, he bought an army power press and
factory in Camberwell with the intention of manufacturing one of
his many inventions for the commercial market
- Dualit was founded on the 16 October 1945 under the name
"Dualit Works"
- Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Goldie Hawn, Henry Winkler, Bob
Marley, Tom Selleck, Bette Midler, Van Morrison and Helen Mirren
were all born in the year that Dualit was founded, 1945
- Max's father was also an inventor and the family produced
acetate wallets in a factory behind their house
- After WWII Max bought original Bliss 2 ton power presses as
army surplus. Made in 1938, some are still in use in the factory
today
- The Dualit name is derived from one of the early ideas of the
company; the Dual-Lite electric fire, so named as it could deflect
heat to two parts of a room
- Early company designs included a stainless steel fire screen,
an onion top and tail machine, and a patented cocktail shaker and
mixer for custards and puddings
- The Dualit Shake-Mixer was designed to mix hot or cold liquids
with dry ingredients like gravy powder, dried egg, dried milk and
blancmange powder. It promised to mix the ingredients in just four
shakes!
- Dualit's first successful product was a patented flip sided
toaster in 1946
- By the late 1940s all Dualit toasters were made in cast
aluminium and stainless steel
- Dualit designed and engineered a commercial six-slice toaster
with a built-in timer (the first of its kind) in 1952, which bears
a striking resemblance to today's model. Residents of Picton Street
(where the Camberwell factory was located) and the entire
Gort-Barten family were involved in its production
- In 1954 the Government compulsory-purchased the factory and
gave Max money to build a new factory on the Old Kent Road
- The Dualit toaster became a ubiquitous part of commercial
kitchens all over the UK, even making it on-board the QE2 in
1968
- Leslie Gort-Barten, Max's son joined Dualit in 1972 and in 1974
Max stepped down as Managing Director but remained an active part
of the business until he was in his eighties
- Government export grants encouraged Dualit to attend European
trade shows. Demand from foreign distributors, coupled with the 80s
trend for commercial kitchen appliances, saw demand quadruple
overnight and the factory was extended to increase capacity
- In the 80s, Canadian designer Dale Bevington gave the toaster a
design update, with the shape of the toaster resembling a loaf of
bread
- Dualit launched coffee machines in the 1980s
- In 1989 Max was awarded the CBE for services to the British
manufacturing industry
- In 1999, Max and Leslie developed the patented Proheat element
for its toasters, which won the company a 2000 Millennium
award
- The Black Heat toaster elements were invented before the Pro
Heat elements and were coated in a membrane that made them
unbreakable and incorporated the same heatproof material used in
the space shuttle
- In 2003, the same year that Max Gort-Barten died, the company
outgrew its factory in the Old Kent Road and moved to new premises
in Crawley, West Sussex
- Alex Gort-Barten, Leslie's son joined Dualit in 2005 having
studied product design at Central Saint Martins as well as working
for the product design consultancy Seymourpowell and the technology
firm Philips
- In 2012 Dualit launched its patented, Nespresso®* compatible
coffee capsules with "NX® Café Caps" Italiano and Lungo
flavours
- At the factory in West Sussex, Dualit also has its own coffee
plant, where coffee beans used to make NX® and Origins Café are
ground and sealed into capsules
- 2014 saw the introduction of a range of new products including
a multi patented, repairable Classic Kettle; a contemporary
textured matt finish (Stoneware) for the Dualit Jug Kettle and Lite
Toaster; a new copper finish for the Classic Toaster and Kettle as
well as patented tea capsules - "It took me a year and a half to
make the capsule," says Leslie Gort-Barten, "it was a challenge to
depressurise the capsule in the right way and make sure there was
no froth in the tea."
- Dualit Four Slice Classic Toasters are hand built from 168
parts
- Two Slice Classic Toasters are built from 141 components
- All Dualit Classic Toasters are made by hand by the same person
from start to finish, with the assembler's name found on the base
plate
- Dualit Classic Toasters are hand sprayed in the Dualit factory
in Crawley. One of the sprayers, Brian, has worked for Dualit for
the last 20 years
- You will also find the sprayer's handprint on the inside of
each Classic Toaster casting
- A number of Dualit's employees have been with the company for
more than 25 years! This often includes more than one member of the
same family and even spans the generations
- New products are often put to test by the staff at the factory
and their feedback is used to finalise designs
- The fastest assemblers can make more than 200 Classic Toasters
in a week
- More than 2000 Classic Toasters are made every week at the West
Sussex factory
- Dualit has its own coffee plant at its factory where coffee
beans are ground, roasted and encapsulated
- Dualit products are now available in 54 countries
- MD, Leslie Gort-Barten gets his best ideas in the bath!
- Classic Toasters are often passed down through the
generations
- Dualit Classic Toasters have been used on nuclear submarines
and in the air!
- Dualit remains an independently owned, family run British
business
- Some new toaster colours and designs are put to vote by staff
members
- The Classic Toaster was included in the Design Museum's
exhibition, "Design: Process, Progress, Practice" in London in
1999
- The Classic Toaster has also been exhibited at London's
Victoria & Albert Museum, as part of the Metalwork
Collection
- Dualit appliances have been featured in films such as The
Holiday, Absolutely Fabulous, Bridget Jones's Baby, John Wick:
Chapter 2, Golden Eye and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- Dualit has collaborated with Emma Bridgewater, The Haven,
Marmite and Little Greene on special edition Classic Toasters
- A four-slice Classic Toaster can toast 160 slices of white
bread, well done per hour / A six-slice Classic Toaster can toast
240 slices of white bread, well done per hour
- Dualit Classic Toasters are currently available in 28
colours
- Dualit fans include David Cameron, Marcus Wareing, Monica
Galetti, Matthew Pinsent, Antonio Banderas and Gordon Ramsay
- In 1960 a Dualit Toaster was placed on P&O's flagship
passenger line SS Canberra, in the Captain's private galley. It
sailed over 3.5 million nautical miles over the next 37 years until
the Canberra was scrapped in 1997. It then served a further 11
years of toasting in the home of one the ship's former
Captains
- Dualit are proud supporters of The Haven, breast cancer support
centres as well as Macmillian Cancer Support
- The Classic Toaster is number 319 in Phaidon Design Classics; a
list of 999 industrially manufactured objects that the design team
(made up of architects, curators, journalists, academics etc)
judged to be of "aesthetic value and timeless quality". Other
objects that made the list include the Swiss Army Knife, Heinz
Ketchup Bottle, VW Beetle and the Aga Stove
- Did you know that Dualit has also ranged a set of weighing
scales, DAB radio, steam iron, gold plated corkscrew, pedestal fans
and a 'hot air' dryer?
- Dualit products are stocked by retailers including John Lewis,
Harrods, House of Fraser, Selfridges, Argos, Sainsbury's, Very and
Lakeland
- Launched in the 1964, Dualit's commercial waffle iron was "The
only British Waffle Iron which makes five heart shaped waffles per
ring at the same time"
- Dualit's top suggestions for waffle toppings were cream,
treacle and jam
- The most popular times of day for purchases on dualit.com are
10am during the day and 8pm in the evening
- Dualit appliances have featured in television programmes
including The Naked Chef, Jon & Lisa's Weekend Kitchen, Sunday
Brunch, Saturday Kitchen, Cold Feet, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders,
Casualty, Birds of a Feather, Fawlty Towers, Absolutely Fabulous,
Friends, Madame Blanc Mysteries and Eastenders amongst many, many
others.
- Dualit's most expensive product to date is a 24 Carat Gold
Plated Toaster for £1000 - only three are currently in
existence
- Dualit's in-house engineering team use 4000 slices of bread per
year while carrying out toaster tests
- Dualit Classic Toasters are quality checked multiple times
before leaving the factory
- Dualit once serviced a toaster which, in its 35 years of
ownership had travelled all over the world with its owner
- Among the weird and wonderful things found inside toasters
which have been returned for repair have been tie pins, fondue
forks (toasting marshmallows over a toaster!?) and a partially
melted plastic toy car!
- In the last 20 years, Dualit has made more than 2 million
toasters
- When the England football team qualified for Euro 2000, Leslie
Gort-Barten had a large screen TV brought into the factory and
extended breaks so staff could watch England games
- In a recent Dualit survey, 37% of respondents said that white
bread is their preferred type of bread to toast, with wholemeal
lagging behind with just 19% of the vote
- In the same survey, 30% of people said 'just butter, plain and
simple' was their favourite toast topping, with a further 30%
opting for jam and marmalade
- Each new toaster and kettle is put through 10 - 11, 000 running
cycles as part of Dualit's meticulous quality control
- Tiptree Little Scarlet Strawberry Conserve is Leslie's
favourite toast topping.
- Alex's is Marmalade with Marmite a close second. Melted butter
is always a must!
*Nespresso® trademark is owned by Société des Produits
Nestlé