Aga’s range extends to China

The chief executive of Aga Rangemaster thinks that his cookers can prepare Chinese food better than conventional technology. That traditional Chinese menus may also be evolving to embrace more Western cuisine is just the icing on the proverbial cake.

This is why he sees a promising new frontier in China, a country that has so far only ever imported one Aga – and that was for a friend of McGrath’s.

“Whatever cooking culture you come from, the Aga is up for it,” he says.

“The answer to the question of whether you can cook Chinese food effectively with our products is, quite excitingly, yes.”

Starting next year, Aga Rangemaster cookers will be sold by major Chinese kitchenware supplier Vatti through a partnership announced this summer, marking the iconic British brand’s first eastern sales venture.

McGrath’s conviction might seem a little misplaced at first glance. Traditional Chinese cuisine is boiled, steamed or fried, rather than simply roasted, grilled or baked. A typical Chinese household uses two gas burners for cooking, and nothing else.

But shifting cultural patterns play a part when Western brands attempt to launch in the country. The Asian giant’s growing penchant for wine and cheese is well documented, and logic might suggest that European cooking methods could also become fashionable. But this explanation is far from the whole story.

“The quality of our cooker adds something to an existing cuisine, as well as opening up opportunities to cook dishes from other parts of the world,” says McGrath.

He mentions Aga-cooked rice, prepared in a simmering oven rather than on the hob, as a twist on a conventional cooking method that enhances the final result.

McGrath also lists the benefits of cooking with radiant heat, rather than hot air – arguing that nutrients are locked in, dishes are cooked more evenly and moisture is retained.

And as if to demonstrate that he’s not talking hot air, he points to Aga demonstrator and Britain’s “food ambassador”, James McIntosh, who travelled to the Far East and came back convinced that the ovens could be used for Asian cuisine.

Aga has a history of revolutionising cookery. Its invention in 1922 by Swedish physicist Gustaf Dalén brought the world the first cooker that could effectively store heat. British manufacturers were quick to seize on the idea and were producing the ranges at a factory near Birmingham by 1927. The ovens are still British-made at a plant in Telford and exported primarily to northern Europe and North America.

McGrath compares the rapid social change that fed Aga’s booming interwar years in Britain to modern-day China, where economic growth is changing people’s lifestyles fast.

He thinks the 1930s marketing effort by a young David Ogilvy, who would go on to form the major advertising firm, can be replicated in China.

Ogilvy’s campaign put Agas at the heart of the home at a time when kitchens were typically hidden from view. The Aga became part of a new cultural norm in Britain and McGrath foresees a similar shift taking place in China.

Aga Rangemaster’s decision to attempt to crack the Far East happened by chance after the company was approached by Vatti, after the Chinese group decided that there could be a market for range cookers among its customers.

McGrath hails the partnership as a relatively low risk way of entering China and hopes to avoid the fate of other British brands, such as Dyson, which have seen their products imitated, mass produced and sold more cheaply by local manufacturers while the Chinese authorities seemingly turn a blind eye.

“It would be daft not to be alive to intellectual property issues,” says McGrath. “But the great thing about having a well-established partner like Vatti is that they already work hard to make sure their research and development is adequately defended.”

It is not surprising the company is looking for growth in unexpected places. McGrath’s tenure at the helm, which began in 2001, has been characterised by a trimmer operation than Aga’s heyday in the 1960s and 1970s. The group sold a series of businesses in the run-up to the financial crisis, although this was more a stroke of good timing rather than prescience, according to McGrath.

“We like to say we got the last train out of town before it was too late,” he says.

But the company’s resolve to focus on consumer goods around five years ago came just as the domestic market ground to a near-halt, which has resulted in revenues flat-lining ever since.

McGrath admits that the group is scoring a “nil-nil draw” at home and his solution has been to shift the goalposts.

The company’s third- quarter numbers, released earlier this week, reported an upturn in sales volume thanks to growing popularity in France. Aga Rangemaster posted a 4pc jump in sales volumes at the half-year and said growth continued at the same pace through the third quarter, but McGrath sees this as a short-term trend.

“You’ve got to ask where longer-term growth is happening. And one answer is China,” he said.

But that is not to say he’s given up on the home game just yet.

The agreement with Vatti also involves a collaboration to develop a line of built-in cookers. These will be manufactured by the Chinese company and distributed in Europe by Aga Rangemaster, crucially providing the British company with an entry ticket into the competitive German market.

McGrath’s battle cry is a simple one: that Aga is a global cooker.

And while it remains a firmly British brand, the phrase McGrath uses to summarise the company’s vision for the future is borrowed from his Chinese business partners: “We’re all family now.”