From
the website of ‘The Record’,
The
Record
Kitchener
End of an
era
Electrohome
winds down, leaving behind a rich
legacy
Raymond
Stanton
If
you're like thousands of Waterloo Region area
residents of a certain age, the name Electrohome likely triggers a rush
of
nostalgia. Chances are you either worked at one of the company's
operations or
one of your relatives did. And you almost certainly owned an
Electrohome TV
set, stereo, fan, air conditioner or piece of furniture.
This
year -- one year after it celebrated its 100th
anniversary -- the company likely will cease to exist, leaving nothing
but
memories of an age when thriving family businesses, such as Kaufman
Rubber,
J.M. Schneider, Marsland Engineering, Breithaupt Leather and Lang
Tanning, were
the backbone of the local economy.
John
A. Pollock, who has led Electrohome for the last 37
years in the roles of president, chief executive officer and
chairperson, is
currently presiding over the windup of an enterprise that once employed
4,400
people and now has a payroll of four. Pollock, grandson of company
founder
Arthur B. Pollock, watched the family firm transition from its golden
years in
the '50s and '60s, when the postwar baby boom fuelled record levels of
consumer
spending and Electrohome was in seven businesses, into a manufacturer
of niche
high-tech products far removed from consumer showrooms. In the past few
years,
he's wrestled with the challenges of a fast-changing world economy that
he
sadly says has left Electrohome "a pale comparison of its historic
self."
All
he has left to do is settle some outstanding issues
related to the pension and benefit plans for former employees and
finalize the
cleanup of a contaminated site on
Electrohome
shaped the area in many ways, says Sandy
Lovell, a member of the Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation. "When
you
think of the number of people the company employed and the dollar value
of
sales, there was a significant economic impact," she says. "But that
wasn't all. Electrohome influenced many of today's successful high-tech
firms,
played a major role in developing our major educational institutions
and has
left a lasting cultural legacy."
Lovell,
one of the organizers of last year's Electrohome
100th anniversary exhibit at the
Electrohome's
departure from the business scene isn't
quite the rags-to-riches-to-rags saga of many family enterprises --
Pollock
recently gave $5 million to the K-W Community Foundation -- but it is a
sad
reminder of an era when Kitchener's predecessor, known by the moniker
Busy
Berlin, was a hotbed of industrial enterprise.
In
1907, Arthur B. Pollock came back to
The
phonograph, a success despite fierce competition,
became the basis for all future operations. The need for cabinets to
house the
phonograph prompted Pollock to start a cabinet-making operation that
grew into
a large furniture manufacturing business. Making the various metal
components
for phonographs, including spring-wound motors, led to the company's
first
exports to
When
radio broadcasting came along, Pollock started
making radios under licence from a
ÈElmira,
had a separate tinhorn speaker and sold for
$175. When electrically powered record players replaced the windup
version,
Pollock was there to take advantage of this new technology.
By
1929, Pollock's three companies employed 150 people
and had combined sales of $500,000. But that also was the year the
stock market
crashed, a development that took its toll on manufacturers of consumer
products. Canadians stopped buying luxury goods and Pollock's
businesses almost
went under. In the midst of this depressing time, Arthur Pollock
suffered a
heart attack. His only son, Carl A. Pollock, left a teaching post at
the
The
company changed course somewhat during the Second
World War. Its furniture making capabilities were converted to produce
airplane
wings, tail sections and other components. The metal products and radio
divisions were busy helping the war effort, too. By the late 1940s,
Electrohome
ranked as a nationally known and important company with 1,400 employees
geared
to meet the demands of the post-war economy. "The war enabled the
company
to acquire new equipment, more production capacity and a wider range of
skills,"
says Pollock. "There was also a new attitude that said we could be a
major
player on the national scene."
If
there's a constant thread to the Electrohome story,
it has to be the family's ability to spot a business opportunity and
fearlessly
pursue it. Arthur Pollock demonstrated this trait time and again in
building
the company from scratch. By the time of his death in 1951, his son,
Carl, had
clearly demonstrated that he'd inherited his father's entrepreneurial
spirit.
Two years earlier, Carl Pollock had launched CFCA,
Naturally,
Electrohome took advantage of its radio and
TV broadcasting connections to make FM radio receivers and TV sets,
first in
black and white and then in colour. But it was the broadcasting side of
the
Pollock family interests that provided the greatest appreciation of
investment
and the funds to fight off the effects of a series of worldwide
recessions and
an ever-growing threat from low-cost consumer product imports from the
John
Pollock took over from his father in 1974 -- Carl
Pollock died four years later -- and spent two turbulent decades
presiding over
some of the best and worst times in the company's history. By the time
the
turmoil subsided, the company was no longer making the consumer
products that had
long been the core of its business. Numerous new ventures were tried in
an
attempt to re-position the company, including its pioneering high-tech
projection and display business, and a lucrative if short-lived venture
into
the video game business.
The
company's TV interests were a bright spot. In 1988,
it expanded its broadcast holdings through its purchase of Sunwapta
Broadcasting, owner of a TV station and FM and AM radio stations in
In
1997, the company's
That
left the company with investments in three
high-tech companies -- Fakespace Systems in
Despite
Electrohome's demise, its last manufacturing
plant in
While
Electrohome was a name that was known in many
parts of the world for its wide range of products, the family behind
the brand,
the Pollocks, also contributed mightily to the community they call home
-- and
not just by creating jobs. Arthur Pollock could fairly claim to have
helped
numerous smaller companies expand by providing work that contributed to
the
design and manufacture of many products. His son, Carl, however,
probably left
the greatest legacy. He, too, could point to numerous local companies
that benefitted
from Electrohome contracts including Raytheon
But
his proudest achievement was the role he played in
getting the
John
Pollock, with engineering and business degrees from
the
Maintaining
the family tradition of looking for business
opportunities, Pollock has invested in three local high-tech companies
--
Advance Composting Corp., PackagingOne Corp. and Everus Communications.
"I'm still having fun," he says with a smile.
Despite
the roller-coaster ride at the helm of
Electrohome, Pollock is fiercely proud of the company's
accomplishments. Could
another Electrohome with seven different businesses happen today? "Not
likely," he says. "Companies today have to focus on one product, one
market niche, and strive for leadership on a world-wide scale."
The
Electrohome story
1907:
A.B. Pollock founds the Pollock Manufacturing Co.
Ltd. in
1920s:
Pollock's firm begins to market electric and
portable phonographs.
1933:
The company name is changed to Dominion
Electrohome Industries Ltd. and the Electrohome brand is introduced for
products ranging from fans to food mixers.
1939:
The outbreak of war brings contracts for
everything from radio sets to wooden aircraft components.
1949:
1980s:
Electrohome sells several divisions, including
home-comfort products, furniture and motor manufacturing, and focuses
on
broadcasting and commercial video products.
1997:
CKCO and the company's interest in the CTV
television network are sold to Baton Broadcasting.
1999:
Electrohome sells its digital projection systems
business to Christie Digital.
2004:
Christie Digital buys Electrohome's last
manufacturing plant on
2007:
The Redmond Group of Companies signs a deal to buy
the Electrohome trademarks.
NAME
WAS DRAWN FROM A HAT
Electrohome
celebrated its 100th anniversary last year,
but there's another significant milestone this year -- the 75th
anniversary of
the Electrohome name.
The
name didn't emerge until 1933, 26 years after
company founder Arthur Pollock established Pollock Manufacturing Co.
Ltd. to
make phonographs. By that time he was running three businesses,
including the
manufacturing of radios. Pollock's son, Carl, was having a growing say
in the
operations and persuaded his father to merge the businesses into one
company.
The
new organization was called Dominion Electrohome
Industries Ltd., a name coined by Carl. A number of possibilities had
been
written on scraps of paper and put in a hat. The first name that was
drawn was
the one suggested by Carl. A few years later, the first letters of the
name
were used to create the name, Deilcraft, for the company's new line of
furniture.
In
1967, the company's 60th anniversary, the formal name
was shortened to Electrohome Ltd.
From
the website of ‘The Record’,
The
Record
Kitchener
Electrohome
could soon
be history
Matt
Walcoff
RECORD STAFF
Electrohome
Ltd., the 101-year-old company that once put
Having
sold almost all of its once-numerous assets, the
company, now down to a four-person office and a bank account, has
nothing left
to do but settle its remaining debts and turn off the lights, said John
Pollack, heir to the company founded by his grandfather in 1907.
"The
company just has so many assets left and we
don't have any revenues," Pollack said. "We've now worked away at
firming up our liabilities and selling our assets, so now we're in a
position
to go ahead and stop the expenditures of funds to keep the company
going,
because there's no future without sales."
In
1972, Electrohome employed about 4,400 people, mostly
in seven local plants. But overseas competition in electronics sent the
company
into a slow decline.
Electrohome
has filed a wind-up plan with the Superior
Court of Justice in
The
plan calls for the sale of the corporation's last
non-cash asset, its stake in Mechdyne Corp. of Marshalltown, Iowa, the
settling
of the company's last liabilities, the distribution to shareholders of
any
residual proceeds, and the delisting of the company from the NEX board
of the
TSX Venture Exchange.
Mechdyne
will buy back Electrohome's 31 per cent
interest in the company for $614,444 US upfront and a 10-year
promissory note
of $3.1 million. Pollack, in turn, will buy the promissory note from
Electrohome for $2.4 million.
The
company will then be able to satisfy its remaining
pension and health benefits. Pollack has agreed to forgo a $450,000 Cdn
retirement payment to which he was entitled.
The
company was founded by A.B. Pollack as Pollack
Manufacturing Co. to sell record players, marketed at the time as
"hornless phonographs."
Over
the next 70 years, it expanded its business to
include televisions, radios, furniture, air conditioners, heaters, fans
and
electronic organs.
It
also owned TV and radio stations, including CKCO in
To
meet the growing competition, Electrohome tried to
remake itself several times but could never regain its past stature.
Production
of the company's consumer products ended in
1987.
The
company divested its broadcast assets in 1997 and
sold its projectors business to Japanese-owned Christie Inc. two years
later.
Synnex
Canada Ltd. of
Pollack
said he does feel some sadness in shutting down
the company for which he has worked since 1962.
But
"there's a time for everything," he said.
"All
the businesses that we're in have changed
drastically over the last 15 years, and on that basis, this is the best
solution in the interest of everyone involved in the company."
