Crystalate Manufacturing Company Ltd. was a British

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adapta ...

s and later

electronic components An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are not ...

manufacturing company that operated in one form or another from August 1901 through August 1990. It is best known for its

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts ne ...

s (under many

record labels A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...

) made of moulded Crystalate plastic. The company was founded 2 August 1901, to make billiard balls and other items as well as gramophone records, using a plastic formulation branded Crystalate, licensed from its American patent holder. The company claimed in advertisements to be the first to press disk records in the UK, a claim neither proven nor disproven, and over time focused more on the music market, producing gramophone record production matrices for more than 20 other companies by 1906, though not operating a record label itself until the 1920s. After merging with Sound Recording Co. Ltd. (exactly how and when remain unclear), Crystalate Manufacturing became, in 1920, the third company (and the second British one) to operate the Imperial label, and by the mid-1920s had four distribution depots in England and one each in Scotland and Ireland. On 30 January 1928, the company re-incorporated in

Golden Green Golden Green is a village in the Medway valley near Tonbridge, Kent. It is 1 mile (1.6 km) from the larger village of Hadlow (of which it is part of the civil parish) and from the town of Tonbridge. Location Golden Green has a populat ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, as Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing Co. Ltd. 1928 also saw Crystalate taking over West Hampstead Town Hall at 165 Broadhurst Gardens in London, and moving its recording studio there. It subsequently established affiliates in France and Germany, set up a new headquarters, Crystalate House, in London, and bought a one-third interest in the

American Record Corporation American Record Corporation (ARC), also referred to as American Record Company, American Recording Corporation, or ARC Records, was an American record company. Overview ARC was created in January 1929 by Louis G. Sylvester, president of Scra ...

conglomerate in 1929. Brands pressed by Crystalate included Crown and Rex Records. The company saw financial difficulties, like so many others, throughout the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. After years of stiff competition from EMI (later the fourth

Imperial Records Imperial Records is an American record company and label started in 1947 by Lew Chudd. The label was reactivated in 2006 by EMI, which owned the label and back catalogue at the time. Imperial is owned by Universal Music Group. Early years to ...

producer) and British Homophone, among a total of 22 British record labels in the mid-1930s, Crystalate Manufacturing's troubled record section was bought out by

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. ...

for US$200,000 in 1937. However, it continued making non-recording products as Crystalate Ltd. The company continued on in the electronic components industry at least into the early 1990s as Crystalate Holdings, which manufactured resistors in the UK, with annual sales of $180 million as of 1990. In November 1983 Crystalate bought

Royal Worcester Royal Worcester is a porcelain brand based in Worcester, England. It was established in 1751 and is believed to be the oldest or second oldest remaining English porcelain brand still in existence today, although this is disputed by Royal Crown D ...

for £23 million in a hostile takeover in order to acquire Welwyn Electronics, selling the china and ceramics divisions to the London Rubber Company and Coors Porcelain Company the next year. Crystalate was chaired in the late 1980s by

Lord Jenkin of Roding Charles Patrick Fleeming Jenkin, Baron Jenkin of Roding, (7 September 1926 – 20 December 2016) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as a cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's first government. Life and career Jenkin wa ...

. In 1989 the company issued a profit warning – net profits had plateaued since 1984 – and in 1990

Vishay Intertechnology Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. is an American manufacturer of discrete semiconductors and passive electronic components founded by Polish-born businessman Felix Zandman. Vishay has manufacturing plants in Israel, Asia, Europe, and the Americas whe ...

bid to buy Crystalate Holdings, but was turned down in favour of a British company, TT Group, in August 1990. TT Group became TT Electronics in 2000.

References

{{Authority control Plastics companies of the United Kingdom Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Manufacturing companies based in London British record labels Cue sports equipment manufacturers Sporting goods manufacturers of the United Kingdom Record labels established in 1901 Manufacturing companies established in 1901 Hadlow