Private Brand Sets - Who Makes 'em?
July 1964 Radio-Electronics

July 1964 Radio-Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Electronics, published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

When you go to Amazon and look at the list of products available, be they tools, hardware, electronics, or clothes, it becomes obvious pretty quickly that many are privately branded copies of the exact same item. Dead giveaways are company names that are clearly Chinese-sounding, or names that are spelled like a name-brand but are off by one or two letters. This is not a new thing, though. As this 1964 Radio-Electronics magazine points out, re-branding of merchandise has been going on for a long time. Those of you who refurbish and/or repair vintage electronics sets might find this fairly extensive list of electronics sets and who actually makes them to be useful. It is a good cross-reference for similar products in case you can't find information on a make you have, but can find it for a similar make. No one is surprised that Montgomery Ward did not manufacture their own electronics products, nor Sear Roebuck or Western Auto. In fact many different major companies made stuff for them. I remember having a four-channel Hobby Shack radio control system back in the 1970s, and noting that the PCB was made by Futaba, who also marketed their own high-end brand of R/C systems.

Private Brands - Who Makes 'em?

By L. A. James

Think you've seen that same chassis before with a different name? You have!

Have you ever made a service calle where a familiar-looking radio or TV set had a strange name or the name of a well-known mail-order-house or chain store? Your familiarity - or lack of it-with these "private-brand" sets depends on how long you have been in the radio-TV game.

What is a private brand? We are all familiar with the big brand names - Zenith, RCA, Westinghouse, etc. These companies put their own brand names on the sets they make. Private-brand sets are made by a manufacturer who sells his sets to a retail store company. Private-brand retailers include chains such as Sears, Roebuck; Montgomery Ward, Western Auto Supply and Gamble Stores. Outlets of one or all of these are found in cities of 5,000 or more throughout the United States and Canada. Although I could find no figures to prove it, I believe that these four companies account for the largest share of radios, TV's and stereo sets sold today.

Probably your next question is, "Who makes private-brand equipment?"

Private-brand radios, TV sets, uhf converters and other home entertainment equipment are made by several very large as well as many small companies. At present, the field is dominated by three large manufacturers. One, Warwick Manufacturing Co. in Chicago, is a captive plant of Sears, Roebuck & Co. The other two supply numerous retail organizations and are Wells-Gardner Electronics Corp., Chicago, Ill., and Trav-Ler Industries Inc., whose offices and laboratory are in Chicago and whose assembly plant is at Orleans, Ind.

Several companies make private-brand automobile radios for Ford, Chrysler and Rambler. The Delco Radio Div. of General Motors is a GM supplier and makes Studebaker radios too.

Another private-brand operation that was really big was the uhf converter business. One company (P. R. Mallory Co., Inc.) made several thousand converters a day for 20 or more of the best-known names in the industry. Some of the smaller private-brand manufacturers are listed in the chart with several of the name-brand companies that have built private-brand sets.

Many small auto parts chains, furniture stores, five-and-dime stores and drug stores have had their own brand names. You will also remember that only last year RCA was making color TV chassis for every company in the United States except two. The other set manufacturers bought the chassis from RCA, mounted them in their own cabinets and put their own brands on. This may have been the largest private-brand operation of all time.

The charts are intended to give you quick, concise information that will help you identify strange sets by their brand names. Most of the sets in use since World War II are listed here. Some sold only in limited markets haven't been included because of lack of space. The columns, reading from left to right, list:

1. The trade name on the radio or TV set, with a notation of the retail company selling it.

2. The name of the company actually making the set.

3. The code letters in the model number that designate who made the set. Not all manufacturers include this code.

4. The EIA identification number assigned by the Electronic Industries Association to member companies.

5.The address of the set manufacturer, not of the retail company. Most electronic components are interchangeable from one model to another, but there comes a time in every serviceman's life when he needs a special part - a cabinet, a coil, a dial glass, a transformer, a speaker or some other part obtainable only from the factory. This is when the chart will come in handy. A letter to the company will usually bring information on how to get the needed part. Most set manufacturers are very cooperative when it comes to supplying parts to insure customer satisfaction. The repairman is often the only link between the manufacturer and the customer. Many people who retail private-brand sets have no repair facilities, and farm out their repair work to private service contractors.

Using the information in the ac-companying tables and on the name-plates of the sets will make your repair work easier and more profitable.

[Merit Coil & Transformer Corp., Merit Plaza, Hollywood, Fla., publishes a catalog (Form 810) which carries on page 57 a list of manufacturers and trade names. No addresses are given, but the list includes some names not in the table published here. The Guide Section of the Triad Replacement Handbook for Professional Servicemen (Triad Distributor Div., 305 No. Bryant St., Huntington, Ind. contains similar information, with part numbers. -EditorJ