Nineteen Eighties: Electrifying Times

The decade started in style with AGA's 50th anniversary celebration. A lavish birthday party was thrown at the Royal Garden Hotel in London and was attended by advertising guru and lifetime AGA supporter David Ogilvy. The company continued to flourish, and its status as something of a national institution was recognised when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited the Coalbrookdale foundry in 1981.

Then, in 1985, AGA launched a landmark model – the first electric AGA range cooker, with the 2-oven EC2 followed two years later by the 4-oven EC4.

These new models retained all the traditional features for which AGA cookers were renowned, but for the first time no flue was required as the cookers vented through a small pipe fanned to the outside.

By the end of the decade, more than 8,000 new owners were joining the AGA family each year.