ACR-News

UK: The seaside town which was home to one of the great British names in domestic and commercial refrigeration for the best part of 50 years is to host a special commemorative exhibition this week.
The exhibition which opens this week in Bognor Regis will celebrate the existence of Lec Refrigeration which, at its peak, was not only one of the UK's top refrigeration companies but the major employer in the Sussex seaside town.

The company's former factory at Shripney Road, which it vacated in 2004, is shortly to become a Sainsburys supermarket. To mark its passing, site owner Sime Darby is backing the exhibition in the town's museum in West Street. The exhibition will run from May 22 to May 27, 10am-4pm, with a special late night opening until 8pm on May 24. Entry is free.

Lec (the Longford Engineering Company) was founded by fishmonger brothers Charles and Frank Purley in 1942 at a site in Longford Road. While making munitions for the war effort it also developed experimental refrigeration units.

It moved onto the Shripney Road site in 1946 and was in full refrigerator production by 1947. The company's success was soon evident and typified by the purchase of its own aircraft for special deliveries and as a swift means of transport for its executives to service its growing overseas orders which at times accountd for 80% of its production. The company even had its own prestigious showroom in London's Regent Street in the 1950s.

Lec was purchased by Sime Darby of Malaysia in 1994 and is now owned by Glen Dimplex.