Rolls Razor

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Rolls Razor model: Imperial No. 2 in closed chrome plated case with the meander decoration
Rolls Razor model: Imperial No. 2 in closed chrome plated case with the meander decoration
Rolls Razor open case. The blade handle on the left is attached to the honing mechanism lever via a spring loaded bearing. The nickel plated blade on the right side is attached to the honing bar that slides on the red leather strop. The grey honing stone is part of the closing lid. Leather and stone lids are interchangeable. The blade has a safety guard with pivot action that allows it to vary the shaving angle while providing safe operation. The head of the blade handle locks perpendicular to the blade using a slide type of action with the spring loaded bearing providing additional stability
Rolls Razor open case. The blade handle on the left is attached to the honing mechanism lever via a spring loaded bearing. The nickel plated blade on the right side is attached to the honing bar that slides on the red leather strop. The grey honing stone is part of the closing lid. Leather and stone lids are interchangeable. The blade has a safety guard with pivot action that allows it to vary the shaving angle while providing safe operation. The head of the blade handle locks perpendicular to the blade using a slide type of action with the spring loaded bearing providing additional stability

Rolls Razor Limited was a British company, which had two reasons for being known: a sophisticated safety-razor, and later an "affordable" twin-tub washing machine.

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[edit] Origins: razor

The eponymous product was a sophisticated safety-razor which came in a metal box designed to allow the blade to be stropped against the lid and thus was not disposable, but unlike the straight razor it incorporated a safety guard and its size was closer to the early Gillette double blade disposable razor. The company wilted in the face of competition from the likes of Gillette

[edit] Washing machines

After launching his washing machine business on the back of newspaper adverts, entrepreneur John Bloom bought the moribund shell as a vehicle to grow his business.

Originally the machines were manufactured in Holland, but later an assembly line was set up at the company’s factory in Cricklewood, London, where prospective customers could view the process. On the back of a heavy advertising campaign, and prices 50% below those found in shops retailing products by Hoover and Hotpoint, the machines were offered on hire purchase in light of the British Government relaxing many restrictions on this type of finance. By 1962, Rolls had secured 10% of the market and was the third largest manufacturer of washing machines. Keen to further expand the business, it merged with the Colston company, founded by ex-Hoover director Sir Charles Colston, which made compact dishwashers, and concluded a deal to distribute Prestcold refrigerators.

The company listed on the London Stock Exchange in mid-1962, at $3.50, with the price doubling in weeks. By the end of 1963, the company was selling over 200,000 machines a year.[1] Marketing itself as Rolls-Prestcold, in 1963 it became the first commercial sponsor of the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

But the retailers and UK manufacturers were unhappy, and reduced their prices considerably to create the so-called Washing Machine War, between direct sales and retailers. In response Bloom was forced to increase his advertising costs just as sales began to fall, and was then hit by the 1964 postal strike which resulted in coupon returns drying up. Receipts from Rolls's customer hire purchase agreements were under written by banker Sir Isaac Wolfson, who by mid-1964 had bankrolled the company with a $28 million loan. Spotting trouble, Sir Isaac withdrew his support and sped the downfall. With Bloom suspected of malpractice, the companies shares were suspended at $0.15 in mid-July 1964, before the company announced it would be placed into voluntary liquidation.[1] Liquidators found thousands of unsold washing machines in warehouses, and after entering to made their report to shareholders to a chorus of Handel's "Dead March" from Saul, reported that the company had assets of $2,100,000, with creditors totalling $11 million, including: Tallent Engineering ($2,400,000); Pressed Steel Company ($1,200,000), and Hawker Siddeley ($151,000, for a DH.125 company plane).[2]

Bloom came in for heavy criticism regarding his business practice. The London Stock Exchange resultantly asked member companies for more frequent and more thorough financial statements, which it formalised in later legislation.[2] Rolls Razor was subsequently a respondent company in a House of Lords judicial decision called Barclays Bank Ltd v Quistclose Investments. This was a landmark case which created the Quistclose trust.

Manufacture continued with machines built by the engineering company Tallent (who built the company's dishwashers), who re-branded them as such briefly, but by 1965 the machines were marketed as Colstons before the appliance division of Tallent was taken over by the Italian firm Ariston in 1979.[3]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Trouble in Never-Never Land. Time Magazine (July 24, 1964). Retrieved on 2008-04-12.
  2. ^ a b The Doomsday Book. Time Magazine (4th September, 1964). Retrieved on 2008-04-12.
  3. ^ Old Adverts - Rolls-Colston. Old Adverts. Retrieved on 2008-04-12.

[edit] External links