Bush Radio company
The company was founded in 1932 as Bush Radio from the remains of the Graham Amplion company, which had made horn loudspeakers as a subsidiary of the Gaumont British Picture Corporation. The brand name comes from Gaumont's Shepherd's Bush studios.[6] Bush Radio Ltd expanded rapidly moving to a new factory at Power Road, Chiswick in 1936.[7] Bush became part of the Rank empire in 1945 when it was acquired by Cinema-Television, a subsidiary of Gaumont-British.[8] A brand new factory was opened at Ernesettle, Plymouth in 1949. In 1946 the DAC90,[9] designed by Frank Middleditch,[10] featured in the V&A exhibition Britain Can Make It.[11] The original model in black became very popular and was succeeded by the DAC90A in other colours, and export models with dials in different languages.
In 1950 the DAC10 radios were launched, along with the distinctive TV22 television.
The Bush TR82 transistor radio, designed by Ogle Design, and launched in 1959, is regarded as an icon of early radio design. Although the first radio to use the Ogle cabinet design was actually the MB60, a battery/mains valve set from 1957 to 1959.
The original Bush Radio company merged with Murphy Radio on 4 June 1962,[12] and a new company was formed called Rank Bush Murphy Ltd. In 1978, Rank Bush Murphy was sold to British conglomerate Great Universal Stores.[13][14]
Rank formed a joint venture with Toshiba in 1978 called Rank Toshiba, and manufactured Toshiba designed televisions in Ernesettle, Plymouth, England. In 1980 Rank terminated its agreement with Toshiba and the joint company was wound up. Toshiba took over the UK factory and continued to manufacture television sets alone.[15]
Brand since the 1980s
In 1981, two young entrepreneurs, Mark Flutter and Richard Schlagman, purchased the Bush brand name trademark from Rank for £600,000. They refreshed the brand on the high street with imported products including radio alarms, cassette recorders and hi-fi systems.[16] It successfully revitalised the brand and led to it being floated as Bush Radio plc in 1984.[17] In March 1986, Prestwich Holdings agreed to acquire Bush Radio for £15 million.[16] In May 1988, Bush was acquired by Alba plc for £6 million.[18][19] Under the Alba Group, Bush products once again became common,[20] being used primarily on imported electronic goods. In November 2008, the Bush brand name, along with Alba, was purchased by
