THE man who created an electric food mixer that became a must-have item for modern cooks was once dubbed Britain’s youngest millionaire.

He was Kenneth Maynard Wood, whose electrical appliances firm was founded in Woking.

Kenneth was born in 1916 and aged 14 he joined the Royal Navy as a cadet, earning 15 shillings a month.

Enterprising even back then, he bought items at various ports where his ship docked and sold them to his fellow sailors for a profit. At the end of the Second World War when he left the navy, it’s said he had saved up about £1,000.

He was determined to go into business, and initially asked an uncle of his who had established the firm of Maynard Fruit Gums, (from which he got his middle name), to help fund him. However, his uncle refused, so Kenneth used his £1,000 savings instead.

In 1947, with business partner Roger Lawrence, they formed Woodlau Industries to manufacture an electric toaster, but Kenneth’s breakthrough came a little later with the Kenwood Chef electric mixer.

The idea of this appliance came to him after he had seen women employed in post-war factories and offices using the then latest hi-tech equipment.

Explaining this, he would later say: “Then when the whistle went [to signal the end of the working day] they went home; and in the kitchen they stepped back 50 years. I saw the day would come when women would refuse to go on living in the past. Why should they work in this century but live in the near Victorian age?”

In 1948, with £600 capital, Kenneth launched an electrical equipment firm in a small rented lock-up in Goldsworth Road, Woking, from where he employed about 20 people. It was here that Kenneth’s first electric mixer, called The Founder, was made.

It was not long before his business partner left and Kenneth changed the name of the firm to the Kenwood Manufacturing Company Ltd.

His renowned Kenwood Chef electric mixer was launched at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1950. Harrods soon began selling it and within a week had sold every one in stock.

The Kenwood Chef and later Kenwood mixers were actually designed by Kenneth Grange. He was a renowned industrial designer for a wide range of everyday products, some being: Ronson cigarette lighters, Kodak cameras, Bendix washing machines, Royal Mail postboxes, the Adshel bus shelter, and even the interior layout and exterior shaping of the cab and nose cone of British Rail’s iconic Intercity 125 passenger train!

Back to Kenwood and in the early 1950s the business transferred to a new building in Hipley Street, Old Woking. It was said at the time the Kenwood Chef was every modern housewife’s must-have electrical gadget for the kitchen.

By 1956 Kenwood was an international business with a £1.5 million turnover and with a product range that also included hand mixers, liquidisers and steam irons.

Soon a larger factory was required such was the demand for Kenwood products. By 1962 production was moved from Woking to a new premises at Havant, Hampshire, where 700 people were employed.

It was claimed that at the time it was the most advanced manufacturing plan for electrical goods the UK had ever seen.

Then, in 1968, Kenwood was dubbed Britain’s youngest millionaire.

Although extremely successful, the firm knew the benefits of continued advertising as new products were launched. It had its own fleet of lorries with the name “Kenwood” in large letters on the side.

It is also said there were Kenwood vans that had a large model of a mixer on the roof above the cab.

Kenneth made his home at Liphook in Hampshire and died in 1997. However, the business he founded continues to trade as Kenwood Industries from its premises in Havant, producing a range of domestic appliances.