Quote:
Originally Posted by duncanlowe
Goodmans, for sure became more than one company. There was the company that was a brand name for Argos and others to sell no brand chinese low end consumer goods. But the loudspeaker part of the company survived at least for a while and supplied loudspeakers to unmentionable companies. I don't remember the order, but for a while there was GLL (Goodmans Loudspeakers Limited) and TGL (Tannoy Goodmans Ltd). I think they have both gone now though.
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Goodmans split in the late 1980s. The half that retained the use of the word ‘Goodmans’ written in red was bought by Alba and to this day remains nothing more than a brand name found on all sorts of random Chinese-made tat.
The rest of the company was bought out by the management team and re-born as GLL (Goodmans Loudspeakers Limited). This in turn became part of TGI (Tannoy Goodmans Industries) and included Tannoy, Goodmans, Epos, Mordaunt Short, Martin Audio and Lab Gruppen amplifiers.
At this time, GLL’s core business was OEM car loudspeakers drivers for the likes of Ford, Rover, Land Rover, Bentley and VW, plus GM and Delphi in the USA. They kept making hi-fi loudspeakers until 1998 and these included the final generation of Maxim/Mezzo/Magnum models that were all standmounters, plus three generations of Imagio models that used ICT-based drivers.
Mordaunt Short was sold to Audio Partnership in 1999 and Epos was sold to Creek around the same time. TGI was taken over by the Danish TC Group in the early 2000s, but GLL reached the end of the road in 2005. A sad day for Britain’s oldest loudspeaker manufacturer in my opinion, although I may be slightly biased asi worked there from 2000 until 2003!