Radio & Allied

"The solution was provided by Sir Harry Moore of the small merchant bank Philip Hill, Higginson (subsequently part of Hill Samuel, which was behind many of the aggressive takeovers of the 1980s). Moore had acted for Radio & Allied in its abortive attempt to buy , Ekco and in its recent talks with EMI and others. Now he took Arnold Weinstock and Kenneth Bond to see GEC."

"In the end the unlikely partner was the General Electric Company (GEC). Unlikely because GEC was a giant by comparison with Radio & Allied, whose 1960 sales were only about 5 per cent of GEC’s £117 million. Indeed, the £9 million increase in GEC’s sales in 1960 was more than R&A’s total. GEC’s diverse interests ranged from wholesaling electrical products in the UK to nuclear power stations in Japan. The consumer products business was far outweighed in importance by heavy engineering, telecommunications and electronics. GEC was a vast international empire, but it had been struggling with poor performance and mounting debts, and a group of key directors had concluded that its main problem was a lack of quality management. They were looking for a top manager, and believed they had found him in Arnold Weinstock."