UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > General Vintage Technology > General Vintage Technology Discussions

Notices

General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 27th May 2017, 8:55 pm   #1
G6Tanuki
Dekatron
 
G6Tanuki's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
Default "House" brands.

I've always been fascinated by these [by which I mean brands sold uniquely through various larger organisations] and their associated social significance.

The Co-Op used "Defiant" as their brand: the co-op "Divvy" being seen as a discount so many mainstream suppliers refused to sell their branded radios/radiograms/televisions to the Co-Op [remember this was back in the barbarous days of Resale Price Maintenance] and having their own in-house brand was a way for the Co-Op to stick two fingers up to the BREMA cartel.

Currys had "Westminster" as their in-house brand: they seemingly signed-up a range of second-stream manufacturers to produce the kit and slapped Westminster labels on the front.

Radio Rentals had "Baird" as their TV-brand; if you visited someone's house and saw a Baird TV you knew they rented rather than owned. In the era when domestic TV was an unreliable and wobbly technology this kind-of made sense, but from the 1960s onwards rental was seen as a somewhat downmarket option.

Come colour and the 1970s: Rental made a kind-of comeback because the technology was again fragile. Granada's "Finlandia" TVs gained a foothold because - if it failed - the cost of replacing the tube in a colour-TV you owned could be several weeks wages.

Plenty of people were happy to pay through the nose for weekly rental to avoid the hassle. Same applied to the first-generation video recorders.

"Catalog" companies, where you bought through a local 'pay weekly' agent, had similar in-house brands I remember Littlewoods had "Spinney" as their brand for transistor-radios.record-players/tape-recorders, which was kinda appropriate [a Spinney is a Little Wood].

In later times the "in-house" store branding adopted a Japanese flavour: In 1982 Dixons introduced Saisho own-brand products presenting an upmarket high technology image spanning audio, TV and video products. "Saisho" was the Japanese for First - despite which much of the Saisho-branded stuff was made in countries other than Japan!

I recall also "Matsui" - this was a similarly Japanese-sounding Curry's house-brand.

Prinzsound? I vaguely recall this being associated with Boots/Timothy Whites, but I may be wrong.

Can anuone recall any other of these house-brands?

I've always been amused and intrigued by the social significance of these "house brands" - in the 1960s/1970s you mahy have been living in a [mortgaged] 3-bed semi on a Wimpey-built housing-estate, and the Ford Corsair on the drive was being paid-for on hire-purchase, but somehow you still looked-down on people who rented their telly.
G6Tanuki is offline  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:05 pm   #2
Cobaltblue
Moderator
 
Cobaltblue's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Exeter, Devon and Poole, Dorset UK.
Posts: 6,823
Default Re: "House" brands.

Pretty sure I bought my Prinzsoumd 8DL from Currys in the early 1970's

Might have been Dixons .............

Cheers

Mike t
__________________
Invisible airwaves crackle with life or at least they used to
Mike T BVWS member.
www.cossor.co.uk

Last edited by Cobaltblue; 27th May 2017 at 9:06 pm. Reason: Added Dixons
Cobaltblue is online now  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:15 pm   #3
Nuvistor
Dekatron
 
Nuvistor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 9,427
Default Re: "House" brands.

I think you have most of them, certainly more than I could remember. The Defiant range was very often built by Plessey and from what I recall were the same sort of quality as the big makes. Had good points and not so good but so did the competition.
The Catolog companies tended to produce less expensive items, I am thinking of radiograms, record players but the selling price was not that cheap. Was it shilling in the pound paid weekly to an agent, cost of the loan built into the cost of the item. The agents job being to make sure something else was purchased before the first had come to term. Continuing credit, Tally man seems to come to mind.
Frank
Nuvistor is offline  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:23 pm   #4
MrBungle
Dekatron
 
MrBungle's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 3,687
Default Re: "House" brands.

There was Realistic of course in the 1980's as well, the Tandy in house brand for the lowest price junk they managed to get from Taiwan.
MrBungle is offline  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:24 pm   #5
Reelman
Octode
 
Reelman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Rotherham, South Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,701
Default Re: "House" brands.

Sorry guys, Prinzsound came from Dixons. I still have several of their flashguns. Dixon's version of the Weltron "space helmet" 8 track player is badged Prinzsound.
Peter
Reelman is online now  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:25 pm   #6
emeritus
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,316
Default Re: "House" brands.

Before my time at Plessey, but the old hands said that they used to make Defiant stuff for the Co-op, as well as the electronics for some RGD radiograms. Prinz was a brand used by Dixons for their photographic stuff, and possibly for their electronics as well.

In the 1970's KJ enterprises sold own-brand stuff under "Audiomaster" label, but in the catalogues I have it was only used for speakers and audio tapes.

A bit OT, but regarding customers' liking for Japanese-sounding names, I remember that for a brief time in (AFAIR) the 1970's , there was an ad run by Philips UK on UK commercial radio where a customer came into a shop and asked for something Japanese and the assistant offered him a "Phirrips". The ad was pulled when Philips HQ heard about it.

Last edited by emeritus; 27th May 2017 at 9:30 pm.
emeritus is offline  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:31 pm   #7
paulsherwin
Moderator
 
paulsherwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,787
Default Re: "House" brands.

Yes, Prinzsound was definitely the Dixons house brand before Saisho. It dates from the 70s when people thought that Germanic names indicated quality. They switched to Saisho with the rise of the big Japanese quality brands like Sony.
paulsherwin is online now  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:38 pm   #8
cmjones01
Nonode
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Warsaw, Poland and Cambridge, UK
Posts: 2,669
Default Re: "House" brands.

Where does the 'Waltham' brand fit in to this, if anywhere? I had an uncle and aunt whose house seemed to be full of Waltham products but I never saw them anywhere else. I guess it was a catalogue brand.

Chris
__________________
What's going on in the workshop? http://martin-jones.com/
cmjones01 is offline  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:41 pm   #9
Cobaltblue
Moderator
 
Cobaltblue's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Exeter, Devon and Poole, Dorset UK.
Posts: 6,823
Default Re: "House" brands.

Wasn't Waltham Woolworths?

Cheers

Mike T
__________________
Invisible airwaves crackle with life or at least they used to
Mike T BVWS member.
www.cossor.co.uk
Cobaltblue is online now  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:43 pm   #10
paulsherwin
Moderator
 
paulsherwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,787
Default Re: "House" brands.

I don't think Waltham was a house brand. Waltham stuff was sold in Woolworths and by some independents, like Benkson.

Woolworths used Vesta as an electronics house brand for a while. I actually own a Vesta V70 radio, cheap'n'cheerful but decent enough.
paulsherwin is online now  
Old 27th May 2017, 9:52 pm   #11
Cobaltblue
Moderator
 
Cobaltblue's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Exeter, Devon and Poole, Dorset UK.
Posts: 6,823
Default Re: "House" brands.

I repaired several of the Waltam grams back in the late 70's and early 80's I always thought them great value engineering.

ISTR they were built in the Irish Republic

As for the Prinzsound stuff it was amazing good value.

My 8DL had the EMI 13 by 8's with 2 tweeters on a bracket an SP25 Mk3 and a pretty decent 8W per channel using proper power transistors.

Cheers

Mike T
__________________
Invisible airwaves crackle with life or at least they used to
Mike T BVWS member.
www.cossor.co.uk
Cobaltblue is online now  
Old 27th May 2017, 10:06 pm   #12
Nickthedentist
Dekatron
 
Nickthedentist's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by emeritus View Post
A bit OT, but regarding customers' liking for Japanese-sounding names, I remember that for a brief time in (AFAIR) the 1970's , there was an ad run by Philips UK on UK commercial radio where a customer came into a shop and asked for something Japanese and the assistant offered him a "Phirrips". The ad was pulled when Philips HQ heard about it.
It's a classic! http://www.hatads.org.uk/catalogue/r...a-dde17ec334fc
Nickthedentist is offline  
Old 27th May 2017, 10:09 pm   #13
G6Tanuki
Dekatron
 
G6Tanuki's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
Woolworths used Vesta as an electronics house brand for a while. I actually own a Vesta V70 radio, cheap'n'cheerful but decent enough.
I always associate "Vesta" with 1960s Chicken Chow-Mein and questionable curries.

Upthread, someone mentioned Realistic: that was the Tandy/Radio-Shack 'Generic' brand, It wasn't always bad - I had a pair of "Minimus 10" bookshelf-speakers back in the 1980s which worked remarkably well considering how small they were.

Tandy/RS also used "Clarinette" for some of their stuff, along with "Concertape" for their linear-recordable-media-of-questionable-quality.

A lot of their bubble-packaged electronic components were badged "Archer". I've got an Archer 'LT44' type audio driver-transformer somewhere here, still in its bubble-pack. . .

Last edited by G6Tanuki; 27th May 2017 at 10:28 pm.
G6Tanuki is offline  
Old 27th May 2017, 10:25 pm   #14
G6Tanuki
Dekatron
 
G6Tanuki's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nuvistor View Post
The Catolog companies tended to produce less expensive items, I am thinking of radiograms, record players but the selling price was not that cheap. Was it shilling in the pound paid weekly to an agent, cost of the loan built into the cost of the item. The agents job being to make sure something else was purchased before the first had come to term. Continuing credit, Tally man seems to come to mind.
Frank
True: In the 1960s Littlewoods was the big catalog-business in the North West and the Northern Midlands.

They also ran a big football-pools business and so in working-class neighbourhoods having the Littlewoods agent calling on friday-night to collect your coupon was not seen as anything unusual.

Truth is, everyone had loads of stuff 'on tick' with Littlewoods and the pools-agent collected for that too, but that was 'under the radar' and didn't accrue the sort of social-opprobrium associated with people who had to buy stuff "On the Provvy" [ "Provident" being a really-high-interest doorstep-lender in the 60s/70s]
G6Tanuki is offline  
Old 27th May 2017, 10:42 pm   #15
paulsherwin
Moderator
 
paulsherwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,787
Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBungle View Post
There was Realistic of course in the 1980's as well, the Tandy in house brand for the lowest price junk they managed to get from Taiwan.
Realistic branded stuff was by no means all junk, though certainly some of it was. Many of the radios and scanners were made by Sangean, and the hifi stuff was generally OEMd by respectable Japanese companies.
paulsherwin is online now  
Old 27th May 2017, 11:14 pm   #16
Biggles
Rest in Peace
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Hexham, Northumberland, UK.
Posts: 2,234
Default Re: "House" brands.

I would agree, Paul. Realistic products are still battling on in my house after all these years. I think the name just seems a bit odd, that's all. There was Radio Shack as well, another Tandy name. I seem to remember some of their scanners were possibly made by Uniden, a very respectable name in that field.
Biggles is offline  
Old 28th May 2017, 12:14 am   #17
paulsherwin
Moderator
 
paulsherwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,787
Default Re: "House" brands.

The Tandy stores always had a vaguely downmarket feel to them, which didn't help the image of the products, especially in the hifi market.

At one stage they bought rights to the Memorex name and used that rather than Realistic in the UK, presumably because of the image problem. They continued to use the Realistic badge in the US.
paulsherwin is online now  
Old 28th May 2017, 12:53 am   #18
Bazz4CQJ
Dekatron
 
Bazz4CQJ's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 4,924
Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
Realistic branded stuff was by no means all junk, though certainly some of it was. .
Yes, I'd also agree that Realistic wasn't all bad. I have a big soft spot for my DX160 receiver, and so too do many others for whom it was their first shortwave radio.

B
__________________
Saturn V had 6 million pounds of fuel. It would take thirty thousand strong men to lift it an inch.
Bazz4CQJ is online now  
Old 28th May 2017, 12:56 am   #19
Julesomega
Nonode
 
Julesomega's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 2,085
Default Re: "House" brands.

More recently, Lidl uses the brand 'Tevion', Aldi has 'Maxtek' and 'Medion', Asda has used the brand 'Polaroid' for in-house products. Asda, Tesco and Sainsburys market electronics under their own names, though Asda seem to have withdrawn from marketing electronics recently.
Julesomega is offline  
Old 28th May 2017, 1:25 am   #20
paulsherwin
Moderator
 
paulsherwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,787
Default Re: "House" brands.

Medion aren't a house brand, they're a German subsidiary of Lenovo. I've only seen their stuff in Aldi in the UK though. Tevion is an Aldi house brand. Lidl don't seem to use house brands for electronics (though they don't sell a lot of it anyway).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medion
paulsherwin is online now  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 6:54 pm.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.