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Thread: New Radio / best £1.24 ever spent

  1. #21
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: Sunny (occasionally) Devon

    Posts: 1,713
    I'm Shane.

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    That's the stuff. Max said it was the best legal alternative. Who was I to doubt him?

  2. #22
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: South West England

    Posts: 958
    I'm Guy.

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    There's quite a gap between 1984 and when I got involved with it in 1996.

    At some point in the mid to late 80's Heybrook was acquired & taken over by a couple called David & Wendy Boughton from outside the audio business who then brought in Mike Jewitt (ex Mordaunt Short, Goodmans, Canon & others and now Revolver) to do design work. Heybrook were based in Estover, Plymouth and were still making Turntables afaik along with their range of speakers. The HB1 was still being made (and winning the What HiFi awards in the years JPW didn't!) & they were having some success at the higher end with products like the Sextet with its ribbon tweeter. At some later point in the early 90's they moved over the border to Liskeard in Cornwall.

    At this time both Heybrook & JPW were still getting some cabinets made in the local prisons which gave both companies a decent competitive edge. Remember this was before such things were outsourced in the far East.

    Meanwhile JPW were also enjoying some success through huge sales of their Mini Monitors sold via Richer Sounds and were also manufacturing speakers for other companies including Monitor Audio, Gale, Denon, Toshiba and others. They took the decision to buy out their main vinyl wrap cabinet supplier and move that whole operation down from Wiltshire and install it in a new purpose built factory on the edge of Plymouth. At around the same time, 1997 JPW acquired a majority share in Heybrook and also a brand called Sequence which made flat speakers with 'conventional' drivers that could be hung on the wall. This operation again had a good deal of success & for a while grew in size by taking on an increasing amount of OEM business. Eventually in 2000-2001 things changed and this OEM work dried up as the customers moved their manufacturing to China, Indonesia & elsewhere where wages & materials were cheaper. The overheads of the large factory & insufficient business overcame the operation & it folded in about 2001. The Heybrook, JPW & Sequence brands were picked up by the main creditor who were the driver manufacturer Peerless (india) who moved production out to Mumbai although left a sales and r&d facility open in the UK until 2005. They still make & sell some JPW and Heybrook products in certain overseas markets as far as I know but not the UK. Mike Jewitt & Charles Greenlees (JPW Director) subsequently formed Revolver and began making a new range of UK built speakers. Peter Wanstall effectively retired from the audio business & now pursues various other business & leisure interests to do with Golf & Sailing!

  3. #23
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: Sunny (occasionally) Devon

    Posts: 1,713
    I'm Shane.

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    Ah yes, if I remember rightly, Stuart sold his interest to the Broughtons in about 1990. I did visit the Estover factory once and was horrified to see a clocking-in machine on the wall. I think even then there were only a dozen or so employees, several of whom I knew from my time, and none of them would have needed such draconian measures to get them in to work on time. I wasn't surprised to hear that Peter had quit not long after.

    Didn't know that Charles Greenlees was involved in AGI. I remember him being involved in some way in the shop, but only briefly. I see that the Heybrook website still gives a UK address in Saltash on the same industrial estate as Revolver. Any idea what that's all about?

    I've got a picture of the happy Heybrook crew in the early eighties after we moved to an old mushroom farm in Wembury which I'll dig out sometime, but meanwhile here's a picture of the infamous Wanstall Hifi premises from around 1974. Through the blue door behind the Mini Traveller, up the stairs to the first and second floor. Interesting neighbours...


  4. #24
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: South West England

    Posts: 958
    I'm Guy.

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    In about 1974 while passing through Plymouth my mother dragged all six of us children in to have sketches of each of us done by Lenkiewicz. She's still got all 6. They are very good actually. I think she paid a fiver each which was a fair sum then. I saw RL a few times in an around the Barbican after I moved down here. Spoke with him too. Now he really was a character!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lenkiewicz

    Our sales/r&d place was in Saltash in 2 units. When Peerless shut it all down, Mike & Charles took on one of the units to do Revolver. Charles had been Peter Wanstalls no.2 at JPW for many years.
    Last edited by pure sound; 11-07-2009 at 22:21.

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