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Company background
The History of Calor
Although the name "Calor" was coined in 1934 and trading began early the following year, the company did not become 'official' until 2 August, 1935 when Calor (Distributing) Co. Ltd. was formally incorporated.
The new business expanded quickly as customers in rural areas ‘realised the benefits of this new' versatile fuel. By 1939 the company had a head office in London and five regional offices around England. Calor (Scotland) had been founded and in Ireland, gas was distributed by Messrs. McMullen Ltd., later purchased by Calor.
In 1947, an exceptionally hard winter led to a major change in the way that Calor was distributed. After relying upon rail transport for the first twelve years of it's life, the company signed a contract with PX (Carriers) Ltd., to deliver cylinders by road. Â In 1948, Calor received further national recognition when it fuelled the Olympic Flame at the London Games.
Calor's first wholly-owned filling plant came on stream at Saxham, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Two further filling plants were built in the 1950's to give even wider coverage: Millbrook (Southampton) in 1956 and Port Clarence (near Middlesborough) in 1959.
Significantly, the 1950's also saw the introduction of the Flavel B500 cooker, a great success story with caravan owners and smaller households., as well as the birth of Calor's industrial division and installation of the first 'bulk propane' tank at the Meredith & Drew biscuit factory in Newmarket.
Calor Ltd. was formed in 1963 and in 1966 a new head office was acquired in Slough; by the following year over 300 employees had moved into the modern tower block. In 1967, Calor was granted a Royal Warrant for the supply of liquefied petroleum gas to Her Majesty the Queen. The company was later granted a second Warrant, this time for supplying Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
From the early 1970's onwards sales of cabinet heaters, and with them sales of butane in cylinders, escalated enormously, beginning with Super Ser which rapidly replaced the paraffin heater as the nation's number one choice for spot heating. In a decade, the market for cabinet heaters and the gas they burned grew from nothing to £100 million p.a.
The increasing demand for storage space led to Calor investing in two largest storage facilities. The first was the purchase in 1976 of a 30,000 tonne refrigerated storage tank at Felixstowe in Suffolk.
The second was a joint venture with Conoco to excavate a vast underground cavern on South Humberside, capable of containing some 100,000 tonnes of gas supplied from an adjacent sea terminal. This facility, opened in 1985, gave Calor the ability to overcome short term supply difficulties and to cope with major changes in demand brought on by extremes of weather.
During the 1980's, Calor's domestic central heating and industrial markets continued to expand and in 1982 the company's head office moved to a 40-acre site near Slough. Despite great efforts to establish a nation-wide network of outlets, Calor Autogas (vehicle propane) never quite reached expectations, due largely to the Government's inability to recognise its considerable environmental advantages by reducing duty.
However, the fuel did become very popular for fork lift trucks, helped greatly by the launch, in 1989, of Calor's exhaust purification system, EPS2000, which enabled vehicles to be used both indoors and outside.
In 1988, the privately owned Dutch company, SHV, became a significant shareholder, acquiring 40% of Calor's equity. By 1991, joint venture companies involving Calor, SHV and the French LPG company Primagaz (in which SHV holds a 50% stake) had been started in Poland and Slovakia, with Hungary following in 1992. In 1997 SHV acquired all of Calor shares. Â
Following the SHV acquisition, Calor continued to increase its storage of LPG, with the acquisition of the 35,000 tonne Canvey Island terminal in 1998, further ensuring the continuity of supply to customers.
Yet as strategic developments took apace, Calor continued to build a socially responsible policy that took account of the communities in which it operated. In 1993, Calor introduced ‘Calor in the Community’, a programme designed to foster links between employees and the communities in which they live and work. As part of this, the first ‘Challenge Calor Day’, where employees were given a day’s leave to work in groups on projects in their local communities, was held on 18th June.
The Calor Gas Village of the Year competition, which had its roots in the 1980’s, continued to grow, receiving support from HRH The Prince Of Wales. By 2004, there were 1500 entrants from whom 45 villages contested the national competition.
Finally, Calor is one of the limited number of British companies that has been recognized by ‘Business in the Community’ for contributing at least one per cent of its pre-tax profits to community causes.
Calor continues to place its customers at the very centre of its operations. Following the relocation in 1999 of the companies
head office to Warwick, at the very heart of the country, Calor opened several further Customer Operations Centres at Grangemouth,
Port Clarence, Stoney Stanton, Elland, Coryton, Fawley,
Neath and Plymouth. Each centre has a team of committed and experienced personnel who are there to meet your needs and provide a friendly personal service.
This means that Calor is moving into the new millennium as a successful, expanding and most importantly - a customer focussed business. It is well and truly the complete gas company, with a range of products suitable for a wide variety of applications.
