of Bentinck Street, London.
1930 Company founded by Mr. P. Perring-Toms, a radio dealer in Brighton who was one of the first to foresee the potential market for renting of radio sets.
1936 Public company. About 50,000 rental customers.
1945 Acquired Mains Radio Gramophone Ltd, a manufacturing company in Yorkshire, in order to ensure the supply of radio set
in 1930 by Mr. J. W. C. Robinson, the present chairman of Radio Rentals.
1953 Manufacturer of TV sets [1]
1960 Acquired the Baird Company. Radio Rentals changed the name of its manufacturing subsidiary in Bradford, Mains Radio Gramophone, to Baird Television, to emphasise its position in the manufacturing of televisions.[2].
1961 Manufacturers, designers, repairers and renters of television, radio and radiogramophones. 4,500 employees.
1964 Merger of 2 leading rental chains, Radio Rentals and Rentaset Ltd. Mr. J. W. C. Robinson became chairman of Radio Rentals
1966 Radio Rentals group acquired the three year old Vista Rentals company.
1968 Thorn Electrical Industries made take-over bid for Radio Rentals. At the time, Radio Rentals manufacturing divisions included Goodmans Loudspeakers Ltd, Metal Developments, Monk Metal Windows and Baird Television and Telerection.
See Also
Sources of Information
- 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- Competition Commission report [1]