Emerson Radio
Emerson Radio Corporation is one of the United States' largest volume consumer electronics distributors and has a recognized trademark in continuous use since 1912. The company designs, markets, and licenses many product lines worldwide, including products sold, and sometimes licensed, under the brand name G Clef, an homage to Emerson's logo.
Not to be confused with Emerson Electric.Company type
History[edit]
1915–1920[edit]
Emerson Radio Corp. was incorporated in 1915 as Emerson Phonograph Co. (NAICS: 421620 Consumer Electronics Wholesaling), based in New York City, by an early recording engineer and executive, Victor Hugo Emerson, who was at one time employed by Columbia Records. The first factories were opened in Chicago and Boston in 1920. In December of that year, the company fell victim to the sales slump which affected the entire phonograph industry caused by the post-World War I recession and the growth of the rapidly expanding commercial radio industry in the early 1920s. The company quickly went from the self-claimed third largest US record manufacturer into receivership.
1921–1940[edit]
In 1922 Emerson Phonograph Co. passed into the hands of Benjamin Abrams[1] and Rudolph Kanarak. Abrams, a phonograph and record salesman, along with his two brothers, ran the company and renamed it Emerson Radio & Phonograph Corp in 1924 after entering the radio business. The company's phonograph record interests were subsequently sold. Although Emerson introduced the first radio-phonograph combination sold in the United States, the company remained relatively obscure until 1932, when, during the Great Depression, it introduced the "peewee" radio (see "Historical Products" below).[2]
1941–1950[edit]
Emerson Radio & Phonograph converted to military production for World War II in 1942, when it held one-sixth of the U.S. radio market. In 1943, it became a public corporation, when it offered over 40 percent of its stock to the public for $12 a share. In 1947, among its first post-war products, Emerson offered a television set with a 10-inch tube.[3] Although its ending retail price was nearly equal to a month's salary for the average working American, it put Emerson at the lower end of the market. However, between fiscal 1948 and 1950, the high demand for television allowed Emerson to more than double its sales. Its net income reached a record of $6.5 million in fiscal 1950, with sales of $74.2 million.
1951–1960[edit]
In 1953 Emerson Radio and Phonograph purchased Quiet Heet Corp., which entered the company into air conditioning. Although radio represented only 15 percent of Emerson's revenue by 1954,[4] the company credited itself as creating the firsts of the clock radio, self-powered radio, and transistorized pocket radio; production of tape recorders began in 1955.
Emerson Radio and Phonograph paid $6 million to purchase the consumer products division of DuMont Laboratories in 1958.[5] With this acquisition, a higher-priced line of television sets, phonographs and high-fidelity and stereo instruments, along with the DuMont trademark was added to Emerson's products. However, by this time, the US television market was saturated, and many customers who were in need of another set were waiting for color television instead of buying a replacement. Sales fell from $87.4 million in fiscal 1955 to $73.9 million in fiscal 1956, when the company earned only $84,852.
A cost-cutting campaign by Abrams rebounded net income which reached $2.7 million in fiscal 1959 on sales of $67.4 million. In fiscal 1964 (Emerson's last full year of independent operation) it earned $2.1 million on sales of $68.2 million.[6]
1961–1980[edit]
In 1965 the company acquired the Pilot Radio Corp. from Jerrold Corp. Later in 1965 Emerson Radio and Phonograph was purchased for approximately $62 million in cash and stock by National Union Electric Corporation, a diversified manufacturer. Its line of Quiet Kool air conditioners became a separate National Union Electric division. This company continued to produce radios, television sets and phonographs distributed under the Emerson and DuMont names and hi-fi equipment under the Pilot name.[7]In addition, in 1966 it strengthened its position in the integrated electrical installation field upon acquiring Electro-Air Cleaner Company of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania; a firm producing a line of electronic air cleaning units.
Between 1967 and 1971 the National Union Electric division lost about $27 million due to too little volume to cover costs. The division contracted out the manufacturing of television sets and some other home entertainment products to Admiral Corp., and laid off 1,800 employees. In addition to importing some of its home entertainment products from the Far East, Emerson continued to be responsible for design, engineering, and marketing.
In late 1972 National Union Electric announced that Emerson was discontinuing distribution of television sets and other home entertainment products. In 1973 Emerson sold its license for marketing products under the Emerson name to Major Electronics Corp. Founded in 1948 by Melvin Lane and incorporated in 1956, this Brooklyn-based company originally made children's phonographs.[8] The company later diversified into the production and sale of a broad line of low-priced home entertainment products that included stereos, radios, and clock radios. In 1971 Major also began importing low-cost radios. By 1975 the company was only manufacturing portable phonographs. In 1976 the company moved its headquarters to Secaucus, New Jersey, and changed its name to Emerson Radio Corp. in 1977.
Sales rose from $11.5 million in fiscal 1975 to $49.2 million in fiscal 1978, the year in which phonographs, radios, tape recorders and players, compact stereos, digital clock radios, and other low to medium-priced electronic equipment was being imported, assembled, and marketed, primarily under the Emerson name. Approximately 60 percent of its components were being imported from the Far East and 20 percent from each Great Britain and domestically, and assembled in either Secaucus or Sun Valley, California.
In 1979, Emerson began selling Heart Aid, after purchasing a large portion of Cardiac Resuscitator Corp., a near-bankrupt company. Emerson spent heavily to develop and produce both an improved Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator and a pacemaker. In addition, the company took an 18 percent share in a developer of computerized axial tomographic (CAT) scanners. Because this line of products never made money, Emerson disposed of its holdings in them between 1987-88.
Emerson Radio dropped its last U.S.-made product, the phonograph line, in 1980 because it became unprofitable due to rising labor costs. Despite harsh competition, Emerson Radio raised its sales and earnings in fiscal 1980 to $81.9 million and $1.6 million, respectively. Their plan was to have their suppliers (mainly in Taiwan and South Korea) imitate Sony and Panasonic audio/video products and then sell them at a lower price.
1981–1990[edit]
Sales increased from $94.8 million in fiscal 1983 to $181.6 million in fiscal 1984, when net income came to $9.1 million[9] because of the company's reintroduction of television sets in 1983. Emerson purchased sets from Goldstar Electric Co. (AKA LG Electronics), a South Korean company, but sold them at a higher price point.
In 1984, Emerson signed a 10-year contract with Orion Electric to produce a line of VCRs to its existing product lineup.[10]
In 1985, a compact disc player and microwave oven were introduced causing sales to once again double in fiscal 1985 to $357.5 million, and net income rose to $13.3 million. TV sets and VCR's accounted for two-thirds of sales that year.[11] Later that year, Emerson Radio moved its headquarters to North Bergen, New Jersey, and acquired H. H. Scott, Inc., a company that manufactured high-fidelity audio and visual equipment. Products were sold under the Scott name until 1991, the year the line was discontinued.
In 1986 Emerson began importing and marketing compact refrigerators and Hi-Fi stereo VHS VCRs. Camcorders, telephones, and answering machines were added to its product line in fiscal 1988. In 1990 personal computers and facsimile machines were added for a major roll-out to more than 500 Wal-Mart stores.[12] In 1992 sales reached a peak of $891.4 million, but net income was only $10.4 million.
Emerson's addition of personal computers resulted in a $150 million loss for the company. That coupled with the recession that began in 1990 brought the company's total loss to $37.5 million in the last nine months of the year. Shares of stock fell as low as $2, compared to the high of $12.75 in 1987. Several shareholder lawsuits charged some Emerson directors and officials with breach of fiduciary duty and self-dealing. Emerson also fell into technical default on its long-term debt of $55.4 million at the end of the year. In 1988, Emerson Radio was sold to Panasonic.