Electrohome fonds

Electrohome.
Electrohome fonds. - [ca. 1900]-2001.

ca. 23.5 m of textual records and other material.

View full finding aid:
(HTML) | ( PDF 1.6 MB, 298 pages)

Electrohome Limited was an international manufacturer of home electronics, appliances, furniture, and high-tech commercial projection and display systems, and an investor in television broadcasting, based in Kitchener, Ontario.

In April 1933, Arthur B. Pollock formed Dominion Electrohome Industries Limited with the purchase of the combined assets of two of his companies, Pollock-Welker Limited and the Grimes Radio Corporation Limited. His son Carl became general manager. The company, commonly called Electrohome, originally had three manufacturing divisions: radio and communications, appliances and metal products, and furniture and woodworking. It became a publicly traded company in 1946.

Over the next several decades, Electrohome produced a growing diversity of consumer and commercial products, including furniture (using the brand name Deilcraft); fans, humidifiers, and other appliances; electric motors; stereo hi-fi consoles; television receivers; and organs. Carl A. Pollock, who had replaced his father as president in 1951, implemented organizational change to manage the increasingly complex company. The operating divisions became Deilcraft, Electrohome Products, Motors and Metal Products, and Defence and Industrial Contracts; staff divisions were Design, Finance and Accounting, Industrial and Public Relations, and Purchasing and Customs.

In 1967, the company’s name was officially changed to Electrohome Limited. In 1969, Carl’s son John A. Pollock was made a vice-president and was elected to the board of directors, and in 1972 became president. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw more management changes. During that time Electrohome abandoned television manufacturing and the electronics division focused on commercial and industrial products, including specialized video and data display monitors and large-screen projection television. Electrohome also entered new fields, including reverse osmosis/ ultrafiltration systems and video-game monitors. By the end of the 1980s, the company withdrew completely from the manufacturing of consumer products to focus on the two remaining business segments: broadcasting and commercial data and video projection and display systems.

Electrohome’s interest in broadcasting began in 1970 with the formation of Electrohome Communications Inc. to acquire Central Ontario Television Limited (later CAP Communications), the Kitchener broadcasting company formed by Carl A. Pollock, Kitchener-Waterloo Broadcasting Limited, and Famous Players Canadian Corporation Limited in 1953. The company, which operated CKCO-TV, CKKW-AM and CFCA-FM, was expanded in 1988 with the purchase of Sunwapta Broadcasting in Edmonton. In 1997, Electrohome sold these broadcasting operations as well as its interest in CTV to Baton Broadcasting Inc. for cash and shares in Baton.

In 1987 when Electrohome introduced the ECP 1000 single lens colour data and graphics video projector, the first of its kind in the world, the company soon became a leader in the field. The Display Systems business focused on monochrome and colour monitors and high-performance LCD monitors; it became a leading supplier for medical imaging and financial trading rooms. The Projection Systems business produced large screen colour video projection systems for data and graphics with developments in LCD and DLP (digital light processing) technologies. The 1999 acquisition of two smaller high-tech companies allowed Electrohome to also enter the fields of advanced visualization/virtual reality and digitized audio systems.

In 1998, Electrohome was divided into two entities, Electrohome Limited and Electrohome Broadcasting Inc. (EBI). The display and projection businesses were sold in 1997 and 1999 respectively and in 2004 the last manufacturing plant and head office building on Wellington Street in Kitchener was sold. For a time, Electrohome remained a holding company, and then in 2007, it sold its trademarks and in 2008 the corporation’s shares were cancelled and delisted. Electrohome maintains an office in the Wellington Street building and is in the process of dissolving.

(Sources: Staebler, Edna, The Electrohome Story, Paris, ON: The Walker Press, 1957; Stanton, Raymond, Visionary Thinking : The Story of Canada's Electrohome, Kitchener: Canadian Corporate Histories, 1997; Stanton, Raymond, The 100th Anniversary Supplement - 1997 to 2007, Kitchener: Canadian Corporate Histories, 2007; and content of the fonds.)

Fonds consists of records relating to the administration, operation, products, and history of Electrohome Limited and its subsidiary companies, as well as its predecessors, Pollock-Welker Limited, the Grimes Radio Corporation Limited, and the Phonola Company of Canada Limited. Includes letters patent and by-laws, share certificates and registers, board of directors' minutes, legal records, financial statements, correspondence, memoranda, advertisements and product literature, internal and external publicity materials, news releases and press kits, press clippings, speeches, sales kits and manuals, photographs and other visual materials, ephemera, architectural and technical drawings, sound recordings, computer disks, and artifacts.

Fonds is arranged in fifty-three series:
1. Incorporation
2. Board of Directors Minutes
3. Board of Directors Secretary Files
4. Executive Officers Files : Carl A. Pollock
5. Executive Officers Files : John A. Pollock
6. Executive Officers Files : James Holmes
7. Executive Officers Files : Howard W. Main
8. Executive Officers Files : Donald S. Sykes
9. Executive Officers Files : Administration of A & C Boehmer Limited
10. Executive Officers Files : Andrew Malcolm Furniture Company
11. Administration : Annual Reports
12. Administration : Annual Report Working Files
13. Administration : Corporate Planning Files
14. Administration : Legal Files
15. Administration : Financial Files
16. Administration : Personnel
17. Administration : Labour Relations
18. Administration : Facilities
19. Subsidiaries : CAP Communications
20. Public Relations Manager's Files
21. Public Relations Working Files
22. Public Relations Working Files : Personnel
23. Public Relations Working Files : Photographs
24. Public Relations Working Files : Electrohome Design Lecture Series
25. Publicity : External Publications
26. Publicity : News Releases
27. Publicity : Press Kits
28. Publicity : Internal Publications
29. Sales and Marketing : Reports and Plans
30. Sales and Marketing : Projection Systems Marketing and Communications Manager Files
31. Sales and Marketing : Promotional Material for Sales Staff, Dealers, and Distributors
32. Advertising : Working Files
33. Advertising : Working Files : Appliances
34. Advertising : Working Files : Display and Communications
35. Advertising : Working Files : Furniture
36. Advertising : Working Files : Television and Stereo
37. Advertisements
38. Advertisements : Product Literature : Commercial Electronics
39. Advertisements : Product Literature : Consumer Products
40. Advertisements : Product Literature : Motor and Industrial
41. Advertisements : Product Literature : Service
42. Operations : Electronic Products Division Manager's Files
43. Operations : Product Development Files
44. Operations : Wartime Production
45. Company History and Anniversaries
46. Museum and Archives
47. Visionary Thinking : Working Files
48. Press Clippings
49. Scrapbooks
50. Visual Material
51. Sound Recordings
52. Computer Disks
53. Artifacts

Title from content of the fonds.

Includes 7148 photographs, 2322 colour transparencies, 1615 slides, 1361 negatives, 232 contact sheets, 116 technical drawings, 45 architectural drawings, 43 printing proofs, 18 audio cassettes, 15 maps, 5 computer disks, 4 film strips, 1 audio reel, and artifacts.

The extent is measured in linear metres of shelf space occupied by the fonds.

Donated by Electrohome in 2007.

Some restrictions may apply.

Detailed finding aid available.

There has been one accrual to the fonds (see GA 199).

Call number: GA186

Special Collections

Electrohome fonds