Early history and mainstream success Ferguson is one of the older electronics companies, alongside
Ultra,
Dynatron,
Pye and
Bush in the United Kingdom. It was originally an American–Canadian pre-War company making radio sets for the U.K. market based upon contemporary American models. On 21 January 1935, it was incorporated as a
private limited company and
Jules Thorn became chairman in 1936. After
World War II, it became Ferguson Radio Corporation, making
radio receivers and, later,
televisions. By 1944, Thorn's group,
Thorn Electrical Industries, was distributing all of the company's domestic radio production. On 9 July 1946, Thorn sold the company to Thorn Electrical Industries for £150,000. Thomson group itself subsequently withdrew from the competitive European
consumer electronics market.
Licensing under Thomson/Technicolor Following its withdrawal from the market, Thomson SA- which later rebranded as
Technicolor - licensed the Ferguson name to several third-party distributors in the UK. Initially it was licensed to
DSGi (the owner of the
Dixons and
Currys retail electronics chains). DSGi ceased using it in 2006 and competitor
Comet took up the licence and used it until 2012. Comet used the brand on
Freeview and
Freesat set-top boxes,
DVD players and
DAB radios. (Although Comet went
into administration in November 2012, with the subsequent closure of all stores, it had already discontinued using the Ferguson brand earlier in the year.) In 2017 the Ferguson brand was again relaunched under license, this time by British manufacturer
Cello Electronics for a new range of televisions manufactured in
County Durham.
Sale to Talisman Brands/Established In 2022, Technicolor's licensing business- including the rights to the Ferguson name and a number of other brands- was acquired by Talisman brands (
d/b/a Established Incorporated, stylized as
established.inc). == UK Trademarks ==