Pye Ltd. - Company Trouble and Sell-off

Company Trouble and Sell-off

Not wishing to risk further damage to their fragile brand, Pye first used transistors in a product sold as a subsidiary brand: the Pam 710 radio, with the transistors themselves labelled Newmarket Transistors (another subsidiary). When this proved acceptable the company launched the Pye 123 radio (still with the Newmarket label on the novel internal components). Products such as these reversed the decline but the arrival of Japanese competition reduced demand to a level that threatened the viability of the manufacturing plants. The company, like most of its domestic competitors, attempted to restore demand with price competition and, where viable production exceeded demand, sold excess stock at loss-making clearance prices. This tactic has no strategic value and by 1966 Pye was in such difficulties that they started to reduce their manufacturing capacity with closure of the EKCO factory in Southend-on-Sea.

Philips attempted to buy out the ailing Pye in 1966. The Trade Secretary Anthony Wedgwood Benn determined that a complete sale would create a de facto monopoly so he permitted the transfer of just a 60% shareholding with an undertaking that the Lowestoft factory would continue to manufacture televisions.

On 20 April 1964, BBC2 was launched, broadcasting entirely on the new television standard of 625-line UHF, but BBC1 and ITV would remain in 405-line VHF until 1969, when they began UHF broadcasting (405-lines carried on until 1985) so, until 1971, all television receivers in the UK had to handle both the VHF and UHF wavebands. This added to the cost of producing television sets. The price of buying a dual-standard set, combined with the small coverage of BBC2 and the highbrow programming on that channel, meant that initial sales of dual standard sets were slow. The VHF system was finally switched off in the UK on 3 January 1985.

The arrival of 625-line UHF & PAL colour television in the mid-1960s was not the rescue that domestic manufacturers had hoped. Test signals began in 1966 and scheduled transmissions commenced on BBC2 on 1 July 1967, with a full colour service beginning on that channel on 2 December 1967. BBC1 and ITV followed suit on 15 November 1969.

The arrival of colour broadcasting in the UK added further to the cost and complexity of producing television sets. The resulting high price and low coverage areas of the new technology delayed consumer adoption further. It wasn't until the TV licence year of April 1976 to April 1977 that the number of colour licences sold outnumbered those of black and white.

In the early 1970s Sony and Hitachi launched UK colour televisions that cost less than £200. Domestic manufacturers attempted to compete, but were handicapped by outdated manufacturing techniques and an inflexible workforce. Pye found themselves with high stocks and low cash flow at a time when industrial relations were poor, the economy was ailing and there was little scope for cost reduction. Foundering, the Pye group of companies was bought outright by Philips in 1976. The Lowestoft factory was subsequently sold to Sanyo and Philips moved the manufacture of Pye televisions to Singapore. Prior to the manufacturing offshoring, the company produced a range of televisions branded 'PYE Chelsea'. The range were teak-clad with stainless steel 'feet' and sported three large channel selectors. Whilst unsuitable for the then upcoming 4th UK channel, the equipment would operate through early video recorders, machines with larger channel capability. The Chelsea range were popular with TV rental companies such as Radio Rentals, Rumbelows and Wigfalls. Maintenance of these sets continued well into the 1980s, with the northern rental chain Wigfalls being the last to withdraw them in 1988.

The PYE brand enjoyed a short-lived renaissance in audio equipment (known as music centres) during the 1970s, and in the late 1980s with televisions, gaining something of a cult status among college students at the time.

In recent years the Pye brand has enjoyed a resurgence on the UK market, with domestic products including DVD recorders. The Pye brand is one of a handful surviving today from the early domestic electronics era that dates to before World War II.