Vidor

December 1936.

Radio.

Battery and radio manufacturer

of Erith for radio manufacture

of Dundee and South Shields for batteries (1965)

• 1934 T. N. Cole, managing director of Lissen Ltd, left that company sometime after it had been taken over by Ever-Ready, purchased Burndept radio company and set up the Vidor battery company, in direct competition with Lissen/Ever-Ready.

• Vidor's name came from the initials of Thomas's two daughters, Valerie and Denise, and his wife Rebecca. As a concession to Ever Ready and his agreement with the company, he did not run Burndept and Vidor himself but employed Mr. R.P. Richardson as Managing Director.

• 1935 Thomas brought an action appealing against the agreement with Ever Ready. An out of court settlement was made and from that time on, relations between Ever Ready and Vidor were strained, not helped by popularity of Vidor batteries with radio dealers because of their competitive prices.

• 1939 Vidor portable radio shown at National Radio Exhibition.

• 1947 - 1958 Various models of radio were manufactured

• 1954 Vidor Burndept Ltd set up a new laboratory for development of Nucleonics Instruments; Vidor-Burndept Ltd was at Erith.

• 1962 Royston Industries acquired Vidor using large amounts of money borrowed from bank.

• 1963 Royston Industries reorganized its Vidor battery company.

• 1963 Started exporting battery manufacturing plant

• 1965 Large contract from India, the 6th for battery manufacturing plant in the past 2 years.

• 1965 Contract signed with ITT to supply battery manufacturing plant for a chain of factories around the world; the project would be handled by STC.

• 1966 Royston Industries announced that Vidor Ltd/Burndept Ltd had received an important contract from STC; this would further establish the VIDOR name internationally.

• 1966 Contract to supply batteries to the USA. Contract to supply factory to Bulgaria.

• 1967 Receiver appointed to Royston Industries after losses.

• 1968 Crompton Parkinson purchased the Vidor and Burndept (installer of battery making factory) subsidiaries of Royston Industries.

• 1969 Licence to manufacture dry batteries granted to company in Argentina; Vidor would supply battery making equipment and have a substantial stake in Vidor Argentina.

See Also

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