Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Housewares chain Lakeland has launched what it describes as ‘a complete world first’: a brand new design of cookware that ‘considerably speeds up cooking, providing substantial savings of time and energy consumption’.
Formed from cast aluminium and incorporating patented ‘FIN-X’ technology, the Flare Pans cookware range has been developed by Lakeland in conjunction with University of Oxford Professor of Engineering Dr Thomas Povey, who specialises in thermo-dynamics applied to advanced jet propulsion and rocket engines. He is an expert on the techniques used to transfer and manage engine heat in the most effective way. But he also likes to experiment, so he applied his research into the design of high-efficiency cooling systems for jet engines to an everyday object which transfers heat: the domestic saucepan.
Flare Pans are described as exceptionally effective on a gas hob. They feature a series of ‘fins’ that encourage the flames to run evenly up the pan sides, ‘locking’ them on rather than the flickering you often see underneath a pan. This channels heat from the flame across the bottom and up the sides of the pan, resulting in highly efficient, even heat distribution. So the pan heats up significantly more quickly and food cooks faster, saving time and using much less energy too. Lakeland claims an equivalent pan of conventional design was shown to need 40% more energy to heat up than a Flare Pan.
The new range of cookware, which retails from £49.99 for a milk pan, will be available in the UK exclusively through the 68 stores operated by Lakeland (which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year) and its website.
Commenting on the launch, Lakeland buying director Matthew Canwell said: “Innovative thinking has been cemented into all that Lakeland has done for 50 years, and we’re always looking for new innovations that will save our customers both time and money. Flare does just that, and we’re extremely excited to be able to bring this incredible new technology to our customers.”
