Nordmende

Logo (historical)

Another variant of the logo

Nordmende was a German manufacturer of consumer electronics based in Bremen . Today the German manufacturer TechniSat sells televisions under this brand.

history

Beginnings in Dresden

Stradella 1960 transistor radio with MW / FM

In 1923 Otto Hermann Mende (1885–1940) founded Radio H. Mende & Co in Dresden . In the 1930s Mende rose to become one of the largest German radio manufacturers. Martin Mende founded a new company in Bremen in 1947 under the name of Norddeutsche Mende-Rundfunk GmbH , which began operations in the halls of the former Focke-Wulf aircraft factory on Diedrich-Wilkens-Strasse ( Bremen-Hemelingen ). In the post-war period, Nordmende was one of the leading German manufacturers of radios , televisions , tape recorders and record players . Nordmende introduced the Nordmende President, the first television with wireless ultrasonic remote control.

1970s

In 1969 Martin Mendes Sons took over the company. In the 1970s, Nordmende televisions became known for their innovative chassis, which were highly modular and separate from the network in terms of signal processing, as well as for an extensive final inspection of the devices delivered. However, both of these resulted in high costs, which soon turned out to be a competitive disadvantage in the color television market, which was exposed to a marked drop in prices .

In addition to color televisions (called Spectra Color ) for the mass market, which had a wooden décor housing, Nordmende built design-oriented televisions with a monitor look, the plastic housings of which were manufactured using an elaborate plastic blow molding process. The devices were offered in many metallic finishes.

The top models were two devices with an integrated stand:

a stereo monitor device with a bass loudspeaker in the base and two stereo loudspeaker boxes that were attached to the housing and could be folded in front of the screen. Because of the large "ears" (loudspeaker boxes), the television was also called " Prince Charles " in the factory.
Another device, only available in mono (“Spectra Color Studio” or “Spectra SK2 Color de Luxe Studio”), in which three 7-inch screens in black and white show three parallel displays under the 63/66 cm main screen enabled other programs.

Sale to Thomson-Brandt

In 1977 shares in the company were sold to the French Thomson Brandt group . A year later, the family also sold their remaining stake in Thomson-Brandt.

The Bremen company always consisted of two companies. The production took place at the Norddeutsche Mende Rundfunk KG ; the marketing and advertising took over the North Mende Vertriebs GmbH & Co. oHG .

During the domination by Thomson, the production company changed its name several times: Norddeutsche AG for entertainment electronics & Co. oHG (NAGFU), later Deutsche AG for entertainment electronics & Co. oHG (DAGFU). The DAGFU became the holding company for the German Thomson companies.

Production was transferred to Deutsche Elektronik-Werke GmbH (DEWEK), which emerged from Süddeutsche Elektronikwerke GmbH (SEWEK), the former SABA production company. At the end of the 1980s DEWEK was merged with Norddeutsche Elektronikwerke GmbH (NEWEK), the Telefunken production company, to form Elektronik-Werke Deutschland GmbH (EWD). EWD later traded as Thomson Television Germany GmbH (TTG).

The Vertriebsgesellschaft (oHG) was dissolved in the mid-1980s. Sales in Germany were continued by Nordmende Vertriebs GmbH , which was renamed Nordmende GmbH . Nordmende GmbH was merged in the mid-1990s with Telefunken TV and Rundfunk GmbH with plants in Hanover and Celle , SABA GmbH, TTG and other companies to form Thomson Multimedia Sales GmbH .

The other, at the & Northern Mende Vertriebs GmbH & Co. oHG participating company which has Nordmende Sales GmbH , changed its name in North Mende International GmbH to and held under the auspices of the European Consumer Electronics (ECE) the rights to North Mende for the export business, while the export business itself was carried out by ECE. Nordmende International GmbH was sold to Thomson Consumer Electronics SA in Paris in the mid-1990s, renamed Thomson Consumer Electronics GmbH and acquired a stake in DAGFU, whereby DAGFU was renamed Thomson Consumer Electronics GmbH & Co. oHG .

1980s

Through Thomson's takeover of Telefunken TV and Rundfunk GmbH in Hanover in 1983, all of Thomson's German production facilities were now continued under the name of Elektronik Werke Deutschland (EWD).

While at the Villingen-Schwenningen site at SABA (SEWEK), Thomson's entire television set development and chassis production (printed circuit boards) were combined and television production was abandoned, the Bremen plant advanced to become the headquarters for color television set assembly for the German and European Thomson subsidiary brands. Only Telefunken was allowed to build its own devices with its own chassis in the Celle plant (closed in 1997) because of its strong position in the German market.

Thomson originally planned to close the Bremen location and give it up completely. However, the group had not expected the resistance of the employees and the support of the Bremen Senate and the great media coverage. Since Thomson already had a reputation as a “job killer” in Germany and did not want to put itself in a bad light again, the company backed off. Instead, production in Villingen-Schwenningen was closed and relocated to Bremen.

In the mid-1980s, the Thomson plant in Bremen was about to be shut down. In 1987 the managing directors took over the company as part of a management buyout . With the social plan money from Thomson, a participation of the state-owned Hanseatische Industrie-Beteiligungen GmbH (HIBEG) and loans from leading Bremen banks, the television and plastic parts production was continued with a greatly reduced workforce under the name Europart (planned name was initially Eurotec ) .

End of production

After Thomson no longer obtained its plastic parts from Europart for the now relocated television production at the end of the 1980s, the company plunged into a crisis from which it no longer recovered. In-house developments could not establish themselves on the market parallel to the supplier production, so that the company went into bankruptcy despite the rescue attempts by the Bremen Senate and a plant occupation lasting several weeks , because the banks had terminated their credit lines.

Nordmende brand under Thomson

Immediately after acquiring the company, Thomson split production and sales into two companies. While production was controlled directly from the headquarters in Paris, sales initially remained independent. The production of audio equipment was stopped in Germany and relocated to France. After several factories were closed in the Bremen area, TV production in Bremen and the Kit Center in Bremerhaven remained. In the Kit Center , kits were put together for countries that required a domestic production share ( local content ).

The main markets for Nordmende were Germany and Italy. Qualified specialist retailers and general importers for the export markets were used as sales channels in Germany. After the export activities of the group brands Nordmende, Telefunken and SABA were combined under the umbrella of ECE GmbH in Hanover in 1987, domestic sales continued to operate independently from Bremen for a few years.

Due to the cutthroat competition of the aggressively priced large-scale sales, Thomson was forced to reorganize domestic sales in the early 1990s. The sales of the brands Nordmende, Telefunken and SABA were centralized in Hanover. Brand families were founded: SABA and Brandt (France) as price-oriented brands for large-scale sales, Telefunken as a quality brand for the retail trade and Nordmende and Thomson (France) as design-oriented brands for the upper price segment.

When the Thomson Group got involved in Germany, it was long avoided to appear under the name Thomson, which is also expressed in company names such as SEWEK, EWD or DAGFU. A change took place in the 1990s. Various companies were renamed with the Thomson part of their name. As a final consequence, the Nordmende brand was also taken off the market and replaced by Thomson, which led to an even faster decline in Germany.

Nordmende today

Since the end of 2007 the brand name Nordmende has appeared again occasionally in connection with LCD televisions. The Indian consumer electronics group Videocon has taken over a television tube factory in Anagni, Italy, from the French Thomson Group, thereby acquiring the trademark rights of the formerly traditional German brand Nordmende. The Phillar Group has been using the term Nordmende since 2008. In Italy in particular, design-oriented flat-screen televisions are sold under the Nordmende brand. Since 2014, the Nordmende brand name has also been used in connection with devices similar to electronic hearing aids .

In April 2017, TechniSat acquired the license to use the Nordmende brand for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland from the brand owner Technicolor SA. The first Nordmende devices from the TV and DAB + digital radio segments were presented at IFA 2017.