Bush (company)

Bush

Industry	Consumer electronics
Founded	1932, as Bush Radio
Headquarters	Milton Keynes
Products	see below
Owner	Sainsbury's (Exclusively sold at Argos)

Bush is a British consumer electronics brand owned by Sainsbury's, and is one of the most famous names on early British radios. Its sister brand is Alba. Today, all Bush and Alba products are sold exclusively at Argos.

The company was founded in 1932 as Bush Radio, from the remains of the Graham Amplion company that made horn loudspeakers, as a subsidiary of the Gaumont British Picture Corporation. The brand name comes from their Shepherd's Bush studios. The company expanded rapidly moving to a new factory at Power Road, Chiswick in 1936.

Bush became part of the Rank empire in 1945 and a brand new factory was opened at Ernesettle, Plymouth in 1949. In 1950 the popular DAC90A and 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 1957-59.

The original Bush Radio company merged with Murphy Radio on 4 June 1962, and a new company was formed called Rank Bush Murphy Ltd.

Rank formed an alliance with Toshiba in 1978. The joint venture was called Rank Toshiba and manufactured Toshiba designed televisions in Ernesettle UK. 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.

The Bush brand name disappeared from the British market during the 1980s. However, since the purchase of the brand by Alba Group in 1986 (now known as Harvard International), it once again became common, being used primarily on electronic goods produced in China and some televisions made in Turkey.

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Wikipedia