Sadly, and after 105 years, AWA (Amalgamated Wireless Australasia) has appointed administrators.
To quote from our ABC news
"
Technology service firm AWA has appointed administrators after 105 years of operation.
The company, originally Australasian Wireless Limited, before changing its name in 1913 to Amalgamated Wireless Australasia, was originally a maker of radios, as well as a radio broadcaster, before expanding into television manufacture and, at times, broadcasting.
AWA is also well known in Sydney for its heritage-listed art-deco head office on York Street which, with its large white radio tower on top, was the tallest building in Australia between 1939 and 1958.
In recent years, the company had moved away from radios and televisions to providing technology services to major businesses and government organisations.
AWA currently has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Newcastle which employ 250 people, plus a national network of more than 700 service agents.
The administrators from PPB Advisory say their primary aim is to keep the business running as usual while they look to sell it."
To quote from our ABC news
"
Technology service firm AWA has appointed administrators after 105 years of operation.
The company, originally Australasian Wireless Limited, before changing its name in 1913 to Amalgamated Wireless Australasia, was originally a maker of radios, as well as a radio broadcaster, before expanding into television manufacture and, at times, broadcasting.
AWA is also well known in Sydney for its heritage-listed art-deco head office on York Street which, with its large white radio tower on top, was the tallest building in Australia between 1939 and 1958.
In recent years, the company had moved away from radios and televisions to providing technology services to major businesses and government organisations.
AWA currently has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Newcastle which employ 250 people, plus a national network of more than 700 service agents.
The administrators from PPB Advisory say their primary aim is to keep the business running as usual while they look to sell it."
That's putting it kindly.
What IS sad is what incompetent management did to the company in the early 1980's.
Until the 1970's, Australia had a large and vibrant electronics manufacturing industry - and at the top of the pile, with a large market share and major export volumes, was AWA.
Then came the Witlam Labor (socialist) Government. They destroyed the industry, one by one appliance/system manufacturers like Astor, Kriesler, HMV closed down, and all components manufacturers, like Plessy/Rola, IRC, Fairchild Aust, Philips Components, etc closed.
But AWA, the largest electronics company in the Southern Hemisphere, with some rationalisation and reorganisation, kept on going.
Then came the 1980's and with it a new generation of incompetent managers, who didn't believe in quality and reliability, didn't have a feel for electronics, and had/allowed a "whiz kid" to blow vast sums of cash in foreign money trading. Tha's what killed AWA. Overnight in 1984 AWA went from being a huge consumer and professional electronics company to a very small niche computer company.
I recall when I worked for a certain large firm in the 1980's. We gave AWA a contract, as we had many times over the years, to make and supply us with about 2000 specialist electronic devices. Our engineer specified that 1% metal oxide resistors be used in all resistor positions not requiring a wire wound power type. This was because in the 1980's, the availiable 1% metal oxide types had a considerably lower failure rate than the Taiwanese made carbon film resistors then proliferating.
When AWA delivered the 2000 devices, they contained cheap Taiwanese 5% carbon film resistors all individually tested, so AWA claimed, to 1%. We never bought anything off them again.
Keit
What IS sad is what incompetent management did to the company in the early 1980's.
Until the 1970's, Australia had a large and vibrant electronics manufacturing industry - and at the top of the pile, with a large market share and major export volumes, was AWA.
Then came the Witlam Labor (socialist) Government. They destroyed the industry, one by one appliance/system manufacturers like Astor, Kriesler, HMV closed down, and all components manufacturers, like Plessy/Rola, IRC, Fairchild Aust, Philips Components, etc closed.
But AWA, the largest electronics company in the Southern Hemisphere, with some rationalisation and reorganisation, kept on going.
Then came the 1980's and with it a new generation of incompetent managers, who didn't believe in quality and reliability, didn't have a feel for electronics, and had/allowed a "whiz kid" to blow vast sums of cash in foreign money trading. Tha's what killed AWA. Overnight in 1984 AWA went from being a huge consumer and professional electronics company to a very small niche computer company.
I recall when I worked for a certain large firm in the 1980's. We gave AWA a contract, as we had many times over the years, to make and supply us with about 2000 specialist electronic devices. Our engineer specified that 1% metal oxide resistors be used in all resistor positions not requiring a wire wound power type. This was because in the 1980's, the availiable 1% metal oxide types had a considerably lower failure rate than the Taiwanese made carbon film resistors then proliferating.
When AWA delivered the 2000 devices, they contained cheap Taiwanese 5% carbon film resistors all individually tested, so AWA claimed, to 1%. We never bought anything off them again.
Keit
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