Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

NEW SERIES VOL. 3. No. 4 TELEVISION DIGEST— 9 TV, Westinghouse, Sylvania. Symphonic Electronic, a major factor in phono business, is expected to give private-label TV a whirl this year (Vol. 2:50 plO). Private-labelers will make first serious move in color TV this year. "We did comparatively little with color last year," Gardner told us, "but we expect to make it an important segment of omr business in 1963. We will be assembling our own color sets in our own plant by the end of May." TraVler Industries also is getting into private-label color, we were told by vp-gen. sales mgr. I. Edelstein. "We're now in the process of making our own color sets. We'll be out with them sometime this year." Muntz TV also expects to introduce color TVs this year, but "on a limited basis," Simberg said. Demand for own-brand color sets is coming in from multi-outlet chains. W. T. Grant, for example, is marketing "Bradford" brand color set, supplied by Wells-Gardner, in 25 stores. Color set is walnut contemporary console with $569 price tag. Western Auto Supply, whose "Truetone" TV sets are made by Wells-Gardner & TraVler, says it will add color to line in May. Montgomery Ward, which has various suppliers (Wells-Gardner, Westinghouse) for its Airline line, is now marketing Airline color set. We spoke with Montgomery Ward gen. merchandise vp C. W. Wood who told us "we are exclusive I ly private-label in both color & b&w TVs. We were marketing RCA color sets but now we have our own (! brand." He said Montgomery Ward is aiming at 100% private-label merchandising as means of meeting dis^ count competition. Pres. Robert E. Brooker recently reported that company will hove 80% of its merchandise ) under house brand by year's end, compared with 40% at start of 1962. He said house brands ore means of ( combatting loss-leadering tactics of discounters. Wood told us "house brands can be developed to the stature 1 of notional brands," said private labels are advantageous because "we eliminate intensive competition, elim1 inate the costs of national brand sets for advertising, sales commissions and so on, and we have captive cus1 tomers." Here are additional comments we got from private-label companies: i Wells-Gardner: "We've had overtures from discounters," Gardner told us, "but we haven't taken any I on so far. We want to be loyal to our old-line customers." ji Muntz TV: "The people we sell private label TVs to are doing a better job for us in the categories V we produce," Simberg said. "We don't make private-label portables. We concentrate on consoles and com I binations, and we see on upward trend. We hove been invited to bid on a lot of combo business, and we II definitely see this phase of our private-label business increasing in 1963. We don't anticipate much change I percentagewise in our 1963 private-label business from 1962's 10%. However, we'll be up in units & dollars i: because we're shooting for total sales of $15 million compared with $12 million last year." Westinghouse : "We have no plans at the present time to go beyond our present private-label busi II ness, which is limited to Montgomery Ward," we were told by O. H. Yoxsimer, TV-Radio Div. gen. mgr. "We have no plans either to sell color sets that don't carry our own brand." He told us "there always ore queries ! about private labels from buying syndicates. It's a continuing thing. There are some indications that more & more people are now looking at private labels and think they should be in it." j Sylvania : Principal customer for Sylvania private-label TVs is Golden Shield Corp., Home Electron ics Corp. Pres. Robert Theis told us. Golden Shield, in which Sylvania at onetime held majority interest (Vol. 2:2 p8), has some 7,000 dealers in 1,500 U.S. communities. Theis said Sylvania is not private-labeling color 1 TVs, and "we hove no plans to do so at this time." I INDOOR FM ANTENNA SPARKS WIDE INTEREST: New product which come along at just right time is creating excitement in East Coast component hi-fi trade, and seems to have strong possibilities in packj age hi-fi field as well. 1 It's the Gallo indoor FM antenna system, which goes into nationwide distribution (at $29.95 list) around !Feb. 1. Smaller than cigar box, Gallo system contains Vi -wave monopole printed-circuit antenna coupled to broadband transistor amplifier (22 db gain) which feeds into 5-ft. length of 72-ohm coax lead-in line. Unit is plugged into regular 110volt outlet for power. Trial marketing of system was conducted by direct mail through ads in Diner's Club Magazine, Saturday Review & N.Y. Times, resulting in about $100,000 worth of orders in first month. According to Pres. Carl