Zoom Meeting - Liz Odell

Liz used to work in the financial sector but gave up a few years ago to become a Response Team Member for Shelterbox, with whom she has since deployed around the world on twentyone occasions.  She is a Nailsworth Rotarian but known to Gloucester Severn because she has previously spoken to us about Shelterbox’s work.  However, on this occasion, she was to tell us about Matchbox toys, which were invented and marketed by her father John ‘Jack’ Odell. 

After leaving school early, Jack did a number of jobs, including diecasting, before being called up to serve with the Army in North Africa, where he was in the Royal Army Service Corps and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.  His mechanical skills came to the fore as his role included cannibalising damaged vehicles to rebuild working machines; his call sign was Lledo (Odell backwards).   

On demobilisation, he teamed up with Leslie and Rodney Smith (who were not related despite sharing a surname).  They had set up a diecasting business and initially made a few toys just to make use of their spare production capacity.  The Company was called Lesney, which was a portmanteau of Leslie and Rodney's first names.  Rodney’s involvement was short-lived – he saw no future for the company and Leslie and Jack bought him out in the early 1950s.  They had their first major toy sales success soon afterwards with a model of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation coach, which sold more than a million units. 

However, the birth of the brand name was prompted by Jack’s daughter Anne’s school only allowing children to bring in toys that would fit inside a matchbox.  So, in 1952 Jack crafted a scaled-down version of the company’s existing green and red road roller toy and this ultimately became the first of the 1-75 miniature range.  It was followed by a dump truck and a cement mixer to complete the original three-model release.  This was the starting point for the mass-market success of the Matchbox series with the company deciding to package the models in replica matchboxes.  Their main competitor was Dinky, but the Matchbox toys were pitched at different sales outlets. 

The range of Matchbox toys expanded and their size allowed them to occupy a market niche barely touched by the competition; the associated price advantage made the toys affordable and helped establish "Matchbox" as a generic word for small toy cars.  As part of Lesney's expansion activities, other diecast model ranges were introduced during the 1950s and 60s.  Models of Yesteryear, introduced in 1956, were slightly larger models of classic vehicles from the steam and early car eras.  However, the main focus at Matchbox continued to be their smaller cars. 

In 1960, the Company entered the FTSE 100 with the shares being heavily oversubscribed.  By 1966, Matchbox had 3,500 employees working across factories in North London and Southend.  Jack was awarded the OBE and the Queen and Prince Phillip visited the Lesney factory in the 1960s; Jack reportedly stepped on the Prince’s foot during the visit! 

Unfortunately, in 1969 American toy giant Mattel launched the revolutionary lowfriction "racing" wheels on its Hot Wheels line of cars and this immediately cut Matchbox’s US sales by 80%.  They responded by developing their Superfast range and went on to expand in the 1970s; but probably overstretched themselves as they later ran into financial difficulties, aggravated by increasing labour costs and general economic conditions.  Jack Odell stepped down as Joint Managing Director in 1973 and Liz said that he then spent the next seven years playing golf!   

At the request of the company’s bankers, Jack returned to take the helm in 1980 but, despite his efforts to salvage the situation, two years later the company met the same fate as had already befallen its British rivals, Meccano and Corgi, and went into receivership.  Jack later described his return as being “appointed Captain of the Titanic ten minutes before it struck the iceberg”.  Jack subsequently bought some of the Matchbox tooling from the receivers and continued to market Matchbox Yesteryearlike products under the brand name of Lledo for the next twenty years.  Jack Odell died in 2007 at the age of 87. 

What came across during Liz’s presentation was Jack’s skill as a craftsman and entrepreneur.  An idea that had started as a toy for his daughter grew into an international business employing thousands of workers and delighted thousands of children.  It must have been a roller coaster ride from humble beginnings in an old pub to multiple factories with a place in the FTSE 100 and a multimillion pound turnover.  Throughout this, Jack Odell remained an engineer and invented numerous tools and processes to support his progress.  The Club thoroughly enjoyed Liz’s talk as shown by the questions posed at the end.  

David Bruce