Expansion

The Company Expands,  With ever increasing demand for the new Televisions, production was moved to the new factory in Cheshire, at this time they recruited a laminator to make the cabinets on site to keep up with demand. At this point Keracolor were only producing the 25″ models, due to Decca produced a new larger screen which still used the 30 series chassis, this meant a new set of moulds had to be produced to fit the larger 26” picture tubes. In early 1973, they decided to add a 19” model to the range, these moulds were later adapted to take a 20” screen, these sets sold in reasonable numbers, they even added an even smaller 12” model which sold in smaller numbers, and then a 22” model was added to the range, Keracolor even made a 20” square Keracolor “for the ‘squares’ of this world” this was called the Conventional Model of which only a handful were ever sold.  The 20” sphere model was available in a hanging version which could be suspended in its entirety from the ceiling on a chrome-plated chain, this came with a reinforcement kit for the ceiling & could also be purchased as a floor-standing model which included an additional black metal frame to hang the Keracolor from. The first frames were made out of box section steel by a local blacksmith, the later frames were made out of round tubing stand on early models by a local car exhaust company, later models had stands made of box section steel. Keracolor also made a couple of special order 26″ suspended models for customers one of which was displayed for over 30 years in the top window of “Round House” on Lytham st Annes sea front.  Keracolor had produced just over 900 televisions in fibreglass, when due to the increasing demand it became apparent they needed to start producing the cabinets on a larger scale to reduce costs & keep up with demand as they were only able to produce around 25 cabinets a week in glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), a number of production techniques were considered, including injection moulding, however they finally settled on making the cabinets from vacuum-formed plastic, Howard was given the task of making the vacuum-forming tools, whilst Arthur purchased the machinery required which at the time was the largest Vacuum former (VF) available from a local company. When all the new equipment was in place and up and running, they could start to selling the new VF Televisions on a much larger scale, offering them “to order” in any colour including a wood grain finish & even a very 70’s grovey flock finish. The main drawback to the vacuum-formed plastic cabinets were a more prominent join around the circumference of the cabinet & each half of the cabinet (hemisphere) had to be formed from a four-foot-square sheet of plastic, they would then cut the halves from the sheets using a bandsaw and join them together but glueing & seam welding using bits of off cut plastic & a large soldering iron, this created a unsightly join around the cabinet which resulted in a number of complaints from dealers. However, the new production techniques allowed Keracolor to increase produce to 200 televisions a week and clear the backlog of orders. Keracolor also added other products to range including a range of Keracolor (GSK) audio equipment, window shutters, Lotus Europa front spoilers, Ford Capri spoilers, Christmas tree stands, flower tubes, steering-wheel desks, car tonneau covers, garden chairs, plant pot, Christmas tree stand, and even GRP sledges & LED watches.
Keracolor had a very close working relationship with Lotus Sports Cars which resulted in Lotus supplying 3 yellow Europa Sports Cars in Kit from in around 1973 (complete cars with Engines removed), these are believed to be the last 3 Europa cars sold by Lotus in kit form before the introduction of VAT on kit cars. A deal was worked out with Lotus whereby the 3 cars would be assembled at the Keracolor factory, they had to be painted in the companies colours of bright yellow with the Keracolor in black on both sides & boot, for some reason only 1 car had a large K on the bonnet . The cars were driven around the UK to promote the new 12″ Kerachrome TV model B812 and featured in the heavily in the Kerachrome brochure, these TV  were built using the split chassis from the Decca Gypsy and incorporated an intergral carrying-handle. The Kerachrome was the smallest set Keracolor every produced, and only sold in limited numbers.

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