page_title: Dexion
section_title: Growth of business
hierarchical_section_title: Dexion / History / Growth of business
caption_attribution_description: English: An old installation of Dexion Slotted Angle, adjustable storage System for pallets.
context_page_description: Dexion is a company name and brand particularly associated with the development of the "Dexion" slotted angle steel strip construction system, widely used since the 1950s for domestic and commercial shelving, storage racking, exhibition stands and accommodation purposes.
  The original UK-based Dexion Ltd manufacturing company spawned several subsidiaries before eventually ceasing trading in 2003. Its bankruptcy saw the start of a long-running pension dispute with former workers.
  Manufacture of Dexion products was taken over by the Norway-based Constructor Group, since 2018 part of Gonvarri Material Handling. Dexion Pty Ltd, spun off as a separate company in 2003, continues to trade successfully in the Australasian and south-east Asia markets.
context_section_description: After initially disappointing sales, production increased to 50,000 feet per week in 1949, generating a business turnover of £500,000 that year. In 1950, production of Dexion strip reached 125,000 ft/week, and a new Dexion factory was opened in Enfield.
  Despite patent constraints and competition from rival manufacturers producing similar products, Dexion Ltd grew rapidly. By 1956, the company's turnover exceeded £2m, it employed 500 UK workers in three UK factories, and had a further 200 employees in Australia, Belgium and Canada, plus licencees in France, Chile, Spain, Argentina and the United States.
  Following the 1953 Ionian earthquake in Greece, Dexion donated 20,000 feet of its product for new housing (a prototype house was designed within three weeks). "Operation Ulysses" attracted worldwide attention, including an article in Time magazine and British Pathe newsreels.
  The main scoreboard and television platform at the 1956 Winter Olympics' ski stadium at Cortina d'Ampezzo was constructed from Dexion, and Ghana's independence celebrations in 1957 involved grandstands for 10,000 people, six miles of crush barriers and 500 bunting poles – all made of Dexion. The company's turnover grew from £2.5m in 1958 to £5.7m in 1962.
  In 1963, Dexion again supported earthquake disaster relief work, following the 1963 Skopje earthquake, providing building frame materials to enable 49 Royal Engineers to build 1560 dwellings, enough for two complete villages, one of which was nicknamed Dexiongrad.
  In addition to the slotted angle product, Dexion developed other systems. Antony Barrington Brown (well known as a photographer and explorer) joined Dexion in the mid-1950s and devised Speedframe: square-section metal tubes which could be quickly fitted together to assemble tables and benches; the system made over £100 million over the next decade.
caption: Slotted Angle storage system
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