Ampersands and AEI - advert issued 1955
Associated Electrical Industries were one of the UK's largest electrical and engineering concerns for many years in the mid-20th century and they encompassed, as seen here, a wide range of allied subidiery companies. AEI, a holding company, had been formed by merger of Metropolitan-Vickers, the Manchester based electrical giant, and British Thomson-Houston based in Rugby, in 1928. These two companies, with often internally competing products and management structures, were in time to prove problematic for AEI although the final abandonment of the brands in 1959 was to prove equally troubling as the well-established brand loyalties of M-V and BT-H were not recognised in the AEI brand. AEI were to be merged into the expanded GEC, a great rival for decades, in the 1966/7 rationalisation of the UK's heavy electrical engineering business.
Anyhow this advert makes great play of the combined strength of the group and of the use of the ampersand to show who was who int he group along with vignette illustrations of the subsidiery company's products. We have both MV and BTH showing the same products followed by
- cathode ray tubes by Edison Swan Electric Co Ltd (the early producer of gas filled lamps and owner of the Ediswan trade mark), formed in 1883 to halt the tussles betwen the two 'inventors' of the light bulb. The company had factories in Ponders End, Brimsdown and Sunderland,
- a washing machine by the domestic appliance branch of Hotpoint, the American brand formed in 1911 and whose UK subsidiary had been formed in 1920,
- switchgear by Ferguson Pailin, a Manchester based company formed in 1913 and whose main works survived until 2002/3,
- control equipment by Sunvic Controls Ltd, a company formed in 1933 to make thermostats and control switches and based in Hamilton,
- refrigeration by International Refrigerators, a prewar manufacturer of BTH branded fridges and based in Llandudno Junction and whow ere taken over by AEI in the 1940s,
- more domestic appliances by Premier Electric Heaters Ltd
and then at the other end of the scale,
- industrial arc furnaces by Birlec Ltd. AEI had only recently acquired this company from Mond Nickel and it had been formed in 1927 as the Birmingham Electric Furnace Co Ltd.
Ampersands and AEI - advert issued 1955
Associated Electrical Industries were one of the UK's largest electrical and engineering concerns for many years in the mid-20th century and they encompassed, as seen here, a wide range of allied subidiery companies. AEI, a holding company, had been formed by merger of Metropolitan-Vickers, the Manchester based electrical giant, and British Thomson-Houston based in Rugby, in 1928. These two companies, with often internally competing products and management structures, were in time to prove problematic for AEI although the final abandonment of the brands in 1959 was to prove equally troubling as the well-established brand loyalties of M-V and BT-H were not recognised in the AEI brand. AEI were to be merged into the expanded GEC, a great rival for decades, in the 1966/7 rationalisation of the UK's heavy electrical engineering business.
Anyhow this advert makes great play of the combined strength of the group and of the use of the ampersand to show who was who int he group along with vignette illustrations of the subsidiery company's products. We have both MV and BTH showing the same products followed by
- cathode ray tubes by Edison Swan Electric Co Ltd (the early producer of gas filled lamps and owner of the Ediswan trade mark), formed in 1883 to halt the tussles betwen the two 'inventors' of the light bulb. The company had factories in Ponders End, Brimsdown and Sunderland,
- a washing machine by the domestic appliance branch of Hotpoint, the American brand formed in 1911 and whose UK subsidiary had been formed in 1920,
- switchgear by Ferguson Pailin, a Manchester based company formed in 1913 and whose main works survived until 2002/3,
- control equipment by Sunvic Controls Ltd, a company formed in 1933 to make thermostats and control switches and based in Hamilton,
- refrigeration by International Refrigerators, a prewar manufacturer of BTH branded fridges and based in Llandudno Junction and whow ere taken over by AEI in the 1940s,
- more domestic appliances by Premier Electric Heaters Ltd
and then at the other end of the scale,
- industrial arc furnaces by Birlec Ltd. AEI had only recently acquired this company from Mond Nickel and it had been formed in 1927 as the Birmingham Electric Furnace Co Ltd.