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Rola Co (Aust) Pty. Ltd. |
Rola Company (Aust) Pty Ltd was well known as a manufacturer of loudspeakers,
transformers, wire
and the associated magnetic components prior to the aquisition
of Byer Industries Pty Ltd in the late 1950's.
The Rola Company here in Australia was formed by Mr. A.L.C. Webb in 1930 and while the company was wholly Australian owned it did rely on a steady supply of components from the Rola Company of Oakland California. At this stage loudspeakers were only being assembled not fully manufactured by Rola (Aust) at their factory in Little Lonsdale St. Melbourne.
ROLA Co (Aust) Pty Ltd Head Office 1930 to 1934, Little Lonsdale St. Melbourne
Heavy duties on all imported goods were introduced by the Scullin Government in 1931. This meant that the cost of components used in the assembly of Rola's loudspeakers dramatically increased. To reduce costs Rola used local sub-contract manufacturers to make the metal components while the coil winding was an in-house operation. At this time there were fourteen loudspeker manufacturers in Australia. Rola always had a policy of making a quality product unlike some other manufacturers, so this coupled with the economic conditions of the day meant that by 1935 most of the competition had fallen away.
ROLA Co (Aust) Pty Ltd Head Office 1934 to 1937, City Road South Melbourne
By 1934 the Little Lonsdale Street factory had become to small and a new factory was built at City Road South Melbourne. In only three years Rola's production had expanded so much that the City Road site had also become too small. A larger head office and factory at The Boulevard Richmond was opened in 1937 with loudspeaker production now running at 90,000 units per year.
ROLA Co (Aust) Pty Ltd Head Office from 1937,The Boulevard Richmond
Shortly after the commencement of World War Two the floor space of the Richmond factory was doubled to accomodate additional wire manufacturing plant. Large volumes of copper wire well beyond Rola's own requirements were needed for electrical and electronic equipment being used in the war effort. During the war loudspeaker production was restricted, however, microphones headsets and signals equipment were produced instead.
ROLA Company's Harrisfield Plant Magnet and wire production
Following the war Rola stepped up the production of loudspeakers once again. With the expanded production capacity as a result of the war Rola was now in a position to expand into new markets. Winding wire was needed for eletric motors in domestic appliances and industry. Television began in Australia in 1956 and Rola produced components for the local TV manufacturers.
Various people have stated different dates as to the official take-over of Byer Industries by Rola, all of these dates would appear to be somewhat later than the date I have found. The Proceedings of the IRE Australia published an advertisement for Rola in December 1957 which stated that Byer products were being manufactured by Rola. If you factor in a publishing deadline for the advertisement then the take-over may have been as early as September 1957.
Rola continued manufacturing in South Melbourne for a while then moved the operation to Richmond. Currently I can only pin down the time of the move to within a year, May 1958 they are still at Dorcas St. South Melbourne and by June 1959 The address is The Boulevard Richmond. 8 Dorcas St. is now a private residence. Plessey Electronics took over Rola (Aust) during the mid 1960's and continued to manufacture many of Rola's products.