Ever Ready; Old Red; 019

My goodness! I never expected to see this "blast from the past"... an old Ever Ready "red" battery!

Ever Ready Red 1

So, not to be confused with the still-existing company "Eveready" (note the lack of the extra "r"), this is a battery from the old British "Ever Ready Electrical Company"

Ever Ready Red 2

From the Wikipedia entry;

The British Ever Ready Electrical Company (BEREC) was a British electrical firm formed in 1906 as the export branch of the American Eveready Battery Company. In 1914 it became independent of its American parent company.

For decades the firm dominated the UK consumer battery market and had several factories in the UK, the largest of which was built at Tanfield Lea, County Durham, in 1968. Other factories included Dawley, Four Ashes, Maldon, Newburn, London (Victoria Works and Forest Road) and Park Lane, Wolverhampton. The company's research effort was centred upon the Central Laboratories, later known as Group Technical Centre, in St. Ann's Road, Harringay, London N15. The company's head office was Ever Ready House in Whetstone, London N20. Overseas manufacturing sites included South Africa, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Jamaica. The company also included UK engineering divisions: Cramic Engineering and Toolrite.

In 1972, the company acquired J. A. Crabtree & Co, a manufacturer of electrical accessories.

The company was the subject of a hostile takeover by Hanson Trust in 1981. Hanson closed factories, cut jobs and sold the German (Daimon) and Italian (Superpila) subsidiaries to Duracell. Shortly before this the British Ever Ready Electrical Company changed its name to Berec Group. From the 1950s the BEREC name was only used for exports of batteries and radio sets (as British Ever Ready Export Company). Some Daimon batteries were branded BEREC as were some produced in Switzerland. One of Hanson's first decisions was to revert from BEREC back to Ever Ready as the UK brand.

In 1992, the company was sold by Hanson Trust to Ralston Purina, owners of the American Eveready company, and is now a part of Energizer Holdings. The company closed Tanfield Lea, its last UK factory, in 1996.[4] Production of some Ever Ready batteries (PP6, PP7 and PP9) continued in the UK until 1999 by Univercell Battery Company, located close to the old Dawley factory using the original machinery.

1906 to 1999; just 6 years short of 100 years... shame.