Calor Gas
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Gas |
| Founded | 1935 |
| Headquarters | Warwick, England |
| Products | Lpg |
| Parent | SHV Gas Group |
| Subsidiaries | Autogas joint owned with Shell |
| Website | www.calor.co.uk |
Calor Gas is a brand of bottled butane and propane which is available in Britain and Ireland. It comes in cylinders, which have a special gas regulator.
The company was formed in 1935, and is one of the UK's largest suppliers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It is currently servicing around 4 million homes and businesses, supplying LPG to power gas appliances from central heating and hot water, as well as cookers, fires and barbecues. The company predominantly supplies LPG to homes in rural areas where there is no mains natural gas supply. In the United Kingdom, Calor is part of the SHV Gas Group, a private Dutch company. Calor originally dealt only with cooking and heating appliances, but now covers a wider range of products for home, business, and automotive fuels.
In 1934, Ritchie Gill, a Cornishman who had been working in the US, returned to England. He spotted an opportunity for a product successfully used in America – liquefied petroleum gas. Gill coined the name Calor Gas and in January 1935 he set up Modern Gas & Equipment Co. Ltd, based in London. In August 1935 the trade was transferred to the Calor (Distributing) Co. Limited.
The business expanded as people in rural areas of the UK realised the benefits of this new fuel – LPG. So by 1939 the company had six offices in the UK: a head office in London and five regional offices. Calor (Scotland) had been founded and in Ireland, Calor gas was being distributed by Messrs. McMullen Ltd., which was later purchased by Calor.
In 1947, there was an exceptionally hard winter which led to a major change in the way that Calor was distributed. Up to this point Calor had been relying upon rail transport for the distribution of the LPG. Calor signed a contract with PX (Carriers) Ltd., to deliver cylinders by road.
The first wholly owned filling plant was built at Saxham, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk and a further two filling plants were built in the 1950s to give Calor even wider coverage. These two plants were at Millbrook near Southampton (1956) and Port Clarence near Middlesbrough (1959). The Millbrook filling plant was closed in 2001; however the sales and service centre remains, selling gas and gas appliances.
The 1950s saw the introduction of the Flavel B500 cooker, which used Calor gas; it became a great success story with caravan owners and smaller households.
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Wikipedia