Almost every Brit has used a Strix product, though they may not know it. The company makes the thermostatic controls that switch off kettles when they boil. It has 61 per cent of the market in developed countries and the tea-slurping UK has 1.2 kettles per household, more than 32m all told.
Investors are thirsty for more: the shares are 65 per cent higher than their listing on Aim at 100p in August last year. The flotation raised £190m but the company is now worth more than £310m.
The challenge for the Isle of Man business is to convert more of the world to the joys of tea and to move beyond kettles, where prices are falling, into new products.