One-day in 1924 Eric was approached by a William Streatfield (Billy) Verrells, who was a schoolteacher (at that time a semi-invalid recovering after having a lung removed due to tuberculosis) who came into the shop one day for a freshly charged battery. Verrells, exasperated by the accumulator letting him down in the middle of an interesting program, complained to Eric Cole that as an electrician, he (Eric) should be able to make his wireless work from the lighting mains, which at that time was on Direct Current.
Eric replied that 230 volts was too powerful to run a 6-volt set and apart from the danger of fire, the reception would be drowned by interference. Nevertheless, later that evening in his workshop Eric thinking about Verrells comments, rigged up a series of lamps between the set and the mains, which reduced the voltage to the required 6 volts and while the set worked, the hum was awful.
After reading up textbooks, he inserted a high capacity condenser to smooth out the hum and took this contraption around to Verrells, who was delighted even though he still needed his high-tension battery and the glare and heat from the electric lamps was pretty bad.

Determined to improve on this, Eric substituted a resistance for the electric lamps, which got very hot however and needed a metal case to avoid the fire risk, Eric in fact later told one of his managers that it was so hot you could have fried eggs on it!!

Persevering, Eric improved the apparatus and sold a few to his friends locally. When later, he succeeded in incorporating into his brainchild a device, which also supplied the high-tension current hitherto needing a HT battery, Verrells persuaded him to advertise his contraption in the radio journals with the result that while the device was still crude and not in accordance with the regulations of the Institute of Electrical Engineers covering mains devices, there was a rapid rise in sales with the result that Verrells, in spite of his illness, went into partnership with Eric Cole using Eric Cole’s initials as a trade mark becoming the E.K. Company or EKCO for short.

Capital came from Mr. Maxwell (who owned and ran ‘Peter Pan's Playground’ – the well known local amusement park on Southend seafront) who by all accounts was a canny Scot, Mr. Manners (an enterprising local builder) and Mr. Pring – who was a local milkman – all of whom became directors.

Interestingly W.S. Verrells became the Chairman and Managing Director with Eric Cole becoming the Works and Technical Director – a role that Verrells felt gave Eric the freedom to be an ‘ideas man’ to develop the business – and leaving himself to run the commercial activity, which gave him a new lease of life to the point that he almost forgot about his illness and much to his surprise, he discovered he had a keen commercial sense. In fact he took charge of commercial policy, and had soon engaged a sales and publicity staff. Now that he had a viable business, Eric took the opportunity to marry his girlfriend Muriel Bradshaw, which he did in 1925.

The EKCO business name was adopted in 1926 when E.K. Cole Limited was formally incorporated (and floated on the stock exchange with a working capital of £2,500) and the business moved to larger premises at 505 London Road, Southend, and then shortly afterwards to 513 London Road, Southend.

As most of England was on Alternating Current, their sales were limited to those areas still on DC and it was soon evident that they would have to produce a model of ‘Eliminator’ that was usable on AC current. However, this involved more technical knowledge than Eric Cole possessed as an electrician, but he got in touch with people who made rectifiers and condensers and managed to produce a model usable on AC. It was crude, but sold very well. They did realise with foresight that as mains powered radio sets came onto the market (following the adoption of the National Grid), eliminator sales would fade out, so production was turned over to making mains powered radio sets, which had two and three valve sets (without speakers) using the new indirectly heated valves.

These new receivers were not very successful, being rather unreliable - not unexpectedly – since the technique was new and reliable components were unavailable, and being the first actual receivers they produced, the design was somewhat experimental but they sold well, such was the demand for sets.

Being well financed, a factory was built at 1135 London Road, Leigh-on-Sea in 1927, and they wisely engaged professional engineers to design more reliable and safer products. This recruitment program (mostly during 1928/9) was to be one of the best moves ever made by Eric Cole since the engineers he brought in were to form the core team, which took the company to commercial success in the 1930’s and beyond. At the same time, he also wisely recognised that he needed ‘home grown’ talent, so he also began to recruit bright school leavers who showed an aptitude for electronics to work alongside these professional engineers.
By 1929, with the rapid expansion, there were about 100 people working for the company and they were earning quite good profits (believed to be in excess of £30,000 p.a.), which in those days was a venerable fortune, and with the new engineers setting the pace, new designs for the sets were coming through, which were exhibited at Radio-Olympia, and proved to be a big success.
As a result of this, a green field site (actually a cabbage patch) was acquired in Priory Crescent, Southend, and work commenced building a completely new factory, which just happened to be built by a company called Bentall Estates who were owned by Mr. Manners. In fact, in addition to building the factory, he went on to build a whole housing estate adjacent to the factory, which to this day is called the ‘Manners Way Estate’.

In 1930, with the 100,000 square feet factory completed, EKCO moved in, and this site was to remain the main HQ and manufacturing site for the rest of the life of the company – with the exception of the war years (WW2). Here, rapid expansion took place and very soon there were around 500 people working for the company. By this time radio production by far outstripped ‘eliminator’ production, but a big issue was the radio cabinet, which was one of the major features in selling the sets. These had been cabinets made from wood but were very expensive, so the newly invented ‘Bakelite’ material was considered.
However, the choice of cabinets was limited until one day in 1930, Michael Lipman (who at the time worked for AEG in Germany), made an appointment to see the Chief Buyer (Mr. Ratcliffe), where he showed him a Bakelite cabinet AEG had made for the German Telefunken company, which demonstrated what could be done with this new ‘wonder material’.

This bode well for Michael Lipman since shortly afterwards EKCO made him an offer he could not refuse, and he joined the company as a Production Engineer for the new factory, with responsibility for the installation and equipment of a tool room, machine shop and mass production assembly facilities.

The new sets in their Bakelite cabinets were an instant success, as were the loudspeakers in cabinets to match - in those days the speakers were separate from the receivers, largely because the early valves were ‘microphonic’, i.e., they were affected by the speaker vibrations, which caused distorted reception.

After the new year of 1931, a fresh range of combined receivers and speakers were designed, again with Bakelite cabinets, and in a wider range of colours. The factory was extended, having proved to be too small for the projected output, and all was set for a still more successful season in 1931/32. Some ten assembly lines using the conveyor-belt technique were built, which was another innovation unique to EKCO at that time and this allowed six models to be produced alongside each other.

This was to prove to be another hugely successful year and it seemed EKCO could do no wrong and amply proved the recruitment program of 1928/29 due to the quality of both the personnel and the product they were able to engineer. A measure of the success was the fact that over a two year period since moving to Priory Crescent, production quadrupled and the number of people worked for the firm reached one thousand. However, disaster was just around the corner.

The crash of 'Credit Anhalt' in 1931 and the European economic crisis, which forced the Labour Government to resign, led the new National Government to impose swinging import duties on industrial products from around the world, with foreign goods charged at a higher rate than imperial items. This hit the cabinets from AEG in Germany and would have crippled EKCO in the marketplace. Urgent action was called for and EKCO suggested to AEG that the cabinets be made in the UK. The upshot of this was that an agreement was entered into whereby, for an annual fee and a royalty, a factory would be erected by EKCO adjacent to the main plant using presses supplied by AEG. This agreement was very onerous at the time. However, the Plastic’s factory was built and the future supply of cabinets was assured.

Of the financial backers, both Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Manners sold their interest in the company, and both ‘Billy’ Verrells and Eric Cole had to mortgage their houses to provide some much needed capital as well as cashing in Insurance policies to back a bank overdraft, which was needed to see the company through the few difficult months until the new 1933 season.
Nevertheless, like a Phoenix from the Ashes (literally) the company emerged stronger than before mainly because of the wise decision taken in 1928/29 to engage top line engineers who now (under the guidance of Eric Cole) set about designing new sets to a much higher standard and quality, which allowed the company to go up-market.

1934 also saw EKCO being at the forefront of the design and installation of Car Radio’s, which were at that time were new phenomenon and very technically challenging. These were launched at Radiolympia that year and caused a sensation as well as quite a few headaches, not the least of which was that the normal radio shops had no garage facilities and garages had no radio expertise, so EKCO had to set up a chain of installer/dealers.
These sets, while not popular with some car manufacturers (who saw them as an unnecessary technical nuisance), soon became an optional standard fit for Rolls Royce, which gave the company not only access to the R/R dealers and clients but the recognition from the worlds best car manufacturer, which was to be influential in more manufacturers slowly offering EKCO car radio’s.

In 1935, to overcome import restrictions on the continent, EKCO set up a manufacturing and distribution site in Belgium. This was only a small-scale operation but was to provide much experience of running an ‘overseas’ operation and working with foreign nationals. Belgium manufacture initially used components shipped over from Southend but gradually began to use locally sourced components, which materially assisted sales. This manufacturing unit, however, was short lived due to an economic downturn in Belgium following the German occupation of the Rhineland in 1936, so in 1937 it was shut down with the exception of a sales and service department in Brussels, which continued up to the start of WW2.

In 1936, EKCO began experimenting with Television through a joint venture with a company called Schophony Limited, where they attempted to negotiate a non-exclusive license for the manufacture, sale and distribution of Scophony television sets. The first set to go on sale was the Ekco-Schophony model ES104. These mechanical large screen models would have been aimed more at clubs and other public premises rather than the home.

At the outbreak of war on 3rd September 1939, all work on domestic Radios and TV’s stopped and following a plan laid out by the government, production was switched over to ‘war work’, which for EKCO meant manufacturing the WS.19 (Wireless set) for the Army, with the ‘bakelite’ presses turned over the munitions work (plastic practice bombs being one such item), and the lamp division returned to valve manufacture.

In 1940, at the time of Dunkirk and with invasion (seemingly) imminent, the order was given to disperse manufacture away from Southend, which was seen as being in the front line. Radar work went to a secret factory hidden inside a country house (Cowbridge House) just outside Malmesbury, the head office/administration went to Aston Clinton, where they occupied the Green Park Hotel, and radio production went to Aylesbury and Woking. In all cases, key workers were also relocated. A site was also opened in Rutherglen in Scotland for component manufacture especially transformers.

In 1946, a subsidiary company, Egen Electric Ltd., was formed to manufacture radio components and premises were acquired on Canvey Island in Essex. TV production re-commenced (TV broadcasting re-started June 1946). Malmesbury started work on Nucleonic equipment as well as CCWR (Cloud and Collision Warning Radar), and Eric Cole became Chairman and Managing Director by the end of the year.
In 1947, an associate company, Kelly & Shiel (EKCO Products) Ltd., was formed in the Republic of Ireland for the assembly and marketing of EKCO products. The Plastics Department was enlarged in the same year to incorporate injection-moulding plant. Weather radar made at Malmesbury flew with B.O.A.C. in the Hythe Flying Boats.

1956 saw EKCO Plastics Ltd formed as a new, wholly owned subsidiary company. This company was responsible for the extensive range of industrial mouldings and 'Gold Seal' domestic ware formerly handled by the Plastics Division. Also in 1956, an Australian Company, jointly owned with Associated Electrical Industries Ltd., was formed to manufacture radio and television receivers. This Company, Ediswan-EKCO (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., had its factory at Yennora, near Sydney, although this was to be a troubled and short-lived venture. At the same time an associate company was formed in Colombia, E.K. Cole (Colombia) Ltd. of Bogotá. This same year EKCO introduced the world's first mains/battery portable television receiver and at Malmesbury possibly the world’s first automatic machine control system was developed for the precision engineering market.

The 1959 Radio Show saw the introduction of the slimmest ever television - an Ekcovision Portable Model. At Malmesbury development work started on a ‘ground-breaking’ transistorised Airborne Weather Radar system (E190), which was the first such system and only half the weight of previous systems. Red Steer (the code name for the tail warning radar for the V bombers) went into front line service with the RAF.
In late 1959, plans were made to re-locate and consolidate the Electronics business sector (radar, telecommunications and Nuclear) in a new factory to be built at Rochford, Essex, leaving Malmesbury to concentrate in heating products.