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Old 29th May 2017, 11:20 pm   #41
Paul_RK
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Default Re: "House" brands.

It certainly was for various things, stationery for example. I don't remember seeing it on electronic items, but that could just be because I wasn't visiting their shops at the time.
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Old 30th May 2017, 12:14 am   #42
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Default Re: "House" brands.

I remember that East Midland electricity board used the name Emelec for some of their stuff, I presume it was the equivalent of the Electra name used by other area boards.

I have some Winfield cassette tapes, I must have bought them from Woolworths..
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Old 30th May 2017, 12:14 am   #43
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Agreed Paul, I don't think Woolies ever used Winfield for electronics, though they certainly used it for pretty much everything else.

Didn't Woolies use the Embassy brand for their range of 45rpm singles, which were pretty feeble cover versions of the chart hits of the day?
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Old 30th May 2017, 2:19 am   #44
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Default Re: "House" brands.

They did indeed. I still have a few from the mid '60s, but their Embassy discs go back further, well into the 78 period. It was quite a popular brand for steel needles too.
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Old 30th May 2017, 8:18 am   #45
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Default Re: "House" brands.

I used to have one of those 'Westminster' portable radios - as Radiomuseum (courtesy of Howard Craven) confirms it was a rebadged Perdio. I fitted two DIN sockets to mine, one for tape in/out, to which a Philips Nxxx portable cassette recorder was often connected, and the other to allow for connection of a mains PSU.
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Old 30th May 2017, 5:15 pm   #46
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Default Re: "House" brands.

In the context of house brands and rebadging, does anyone know anything about the Elpico brand? I have one of their car radios from the 1970's and it's not a bad radio but has a fault. All efforts to find service info for it have failed and I wonder whether looking under some other brand names might turn something up. It looks to be British made, and very like Radiomobile, but cannot find a match.

Thanks
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Old 30th May 2017, 5:27 pm   #47
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Made by Lee Products is all I know.

Lawrence.
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Old 30th May 2017, 5:38 pm   #48
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Elpico is Italian I think.
I have an Elpico reel recorder .
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Old 30th May 2017, 5:42 pm   #49
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Default Re: "House" brands.

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Originally Posted by camtechman View Post
Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't "Winfield" another Woolworth brand too?
Yes.

Woolworths also had "Hercules" which was their in-house equivalent of Duraplug.

I recall that the 'white' Hercules 13A rubber plugs turned a disturbing shade of yellow rather rapidly.
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Old 30th May 2017, 5:48 pm   #50
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Rubber plugs. I remember the live and neutral pins turning in towards each other! Probably as result of the main casing screw bring overtightened on to the rubber base.
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Old 30th May 2017, 6:18 pm   #51
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Elpico is Italian I think.
I have an Elpico reel recorder .
Seems to have been a British company, Lee Products (GB) Ltd. according to an entry in R+TVS for 1962-3, but the little Italian Geloso tape recorders were about their most successful offering judging by how many have survived. If Elpico was a brand of convenience for whatever equipment they had to sell, small wonder there's a lack of service data.

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Old 30th May 2017, 7:01 pm   #52
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Default Re: "House" brands.

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I seem to remember some of their scanners were possibly made by Uniden, a very respectable name in that field.
Agree, some of the 'Realistic' branded scanners (and indeed CB radios) were Unidens 'under the bonnet'.

How about also 'Micronta' for anything vaguely like test gear - Multimeters especially, but also signal injector / tracers and things like that.

'Archer' for small handtools and soldering accessories

....'Science Fair' for the educational electronic toys, like the 100-in one electronic project kits?

Realistic speakers (sometimes branded 'Optimus' or 'Minimus') were often unexpectedly decent, I had a large pair of Realistic Mach-Twos which succumbed to foam surround disease just a few years ago, and I foolishly scrapped them before realising I might have been able to get the drivers fixed, and before realising that nobody made similar large, floor standing speakers with decent sized - 10" or more - bass drivers anymore.

And who couldn't love (?) their way of describing the products - there would be three stereo systems across a double page of the catalogue, and they would be labelled "Good", "Better" and "Best".

There were a few instances where I recall them selling original-brand equipment, notably Casio (watches and handheld TVs), Weller (Soldering irons), Memorex (Audio Tape)... were there more?
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Old 30th May 2017, 7:07 pm   #53
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Silvercrest is used by Lidl for electrical and electronic products.

Dave

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Old 30th May 2017, 7:19 pm   #54
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Default Re: "House" brands.

When I was a kid I remember Vesta and Sunshine were Woolworth's names for their excellent light bulb range. Autovox was Comet's radio and TV range. I think Proline was another. J.
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Old 30th May 2017, 7:20 pm   #55
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Default Re: "House" brands.

I recall Civic but can't remember the shop it came from.
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Old 30th May 2017, 7:42 pm   #56
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Default Re: "House" brands.

A couple of points of (possible) interest. (1) Autovox weren't a 'house' brand, but a famous Italian manufacturer of Car radios & Stereos, which were distributed in the UK by different firms over the years. Some of their products were rebadged as other brands - The MA754 radio/cassette player, e.g., was also sold as the Motorola 252, and as a 'Brovox'.
(2) Lee Products Ltd. were a British company who manufactured Car Radios branded 'Elpico' (L.P. Co.). They, at one time, IIRC, also imported Autovox products.
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Old 30th May 2017, 8:07 pm   #57
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bazz4CQJ View Post
In the context of house brands and rebadging, does anyone know anything about the Elpico brand? I have one of their car radios from the 1970's and it's not a bad radio but has a fault. All efforts to find service info for it have failed and I wonder whether looking under some other brand names might turn something up. It looks to be British made, and very like Radiomobile, but cannot find a match.

Thanks
B
Elpico weren't a house brand. They were another of the far Eastern importers like Lloytron and Binatone, at least by the 70s. They sold primarily through independents but would supply anybody who was interested. I think I had a (very cheap'n'nasty) Elpico car radio in my Minivan in 1976, though it may have had a different no-name badge. I can't remember where I bought it from but it may have come from Halfords.
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Old 30th May 2017, 9:20 pm   #58
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SiriusHardware View Post

Realistic speakers (sometimes branded 'Optimus' or 'Minimus') were often unexpectedly decent, I had a large pair of Realistic Mach-Twos which succumbed to foam surround disease just a few years ago, and I foolishly scrapped them before realising I might have been able to get the drivers fixed, and before realising that nobody made similar large, floor standing speakers with decent sized - 10" or more - bass drivers anymore.

And who couldn't love (?) their way of describing the products - there would be three stereo systems across a double page of the catalogue, and they would be labelled "Good", "Better" and "Best".
I love it!
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Old 30th May 2017, 9:27 pm   #59
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Default Re: "House" brands.

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I recall Civic but can't remember the shop it came from.
Civic was a TV sales/rental chain in its own right; I guess they bought stuff in and badged it up?

I remember them for their ads featuring Harry Worth: https://youtu.be/8iugrSJIgz8

They seemed to disappear in the early-1970s.
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Old 30th May 2017, 9:33 pm   #60
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Default Re: "House" brands.

Lidl also use Powerfix on power tools.
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