Canadian Hoover Junior Convertible

[eureka1998]

I had no idea this even existed on this side of the Atlantic until I found this thread a few days ago. Always found the Juniors to be a fascinating bunch of cleaners. I only really knew of the 1348 being the only Junior on this side but I'm curious if anyone knows about the North American 1354A or has one? It's a dirtsearcher model.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Eureka1998

Since the 120-volt 1354A Dirtsearcher Junior vacuum was only sold in Canada, it most likely had some final assembly done at Hoover's Burlington, Ontario manufacturing plant.

~Ben

 

[eurekaprince]

It looks like that catalogue page was from a small catalogue store called Consumers Distributing which we had in Canada in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Here’s a summary from Wikipedia:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers_Distributing

 

[eureka1998]

Here's a question I have......

The Junior was primarily built in Britain. Nowadays Hoover US and UK are two completely different companies one owned by TTI/Maytag etc and one owned by Candy. Back in the day when Juniors were mostly exclusive to the UK, were Hoover US and Hoover UK the same company? When did Hoover UK become its own thing with Candy?

 

[eurekaprince]

The corporate “acrobatics” were as follows.

Hoover Europe was sold to Italy’s Candy company in 1995. Before that time Hoover Europe and Hoover Canada and Hoover USA were corporately linked so the cleaners sold in those locations were often very very similar. Until the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1980’s, Hoover had to have a separate factory in Canada to make and sell their cleaners north of the border. After the NAFTA was signed, Hoover could sell American made cleaners in Canada and Mexico without any extra tariffs.

Hoover North America was sold to Maytag in 1989 and then to TTI of Hong Kong in December 2006. TTI also bought the rights to Dirt Devil, Royal and Oreck and also Vax in the UK. The vacuum shelves in UK stores in the last two decades had Hoovers made by Italy’s Candy Company, American Hoovers sold as Maytags, and American Dirt Devils sold as Vax cleaners.

These global companies buy and sell brandnames and factories like they are changing underwear daily! Unlike in the post WWII decades when you could be confident that a brandname reflected the founding company and factories, these days brandnames mean absolutely nothing except trying to fool old consumers into thinking they are really buying a vacuum made by the original Hoover company, Eureka company, Sunbeam company, Singer company or Westinghouse company.

 

[eureka1998]

eurekaprince

I feel like Matytag/Hoover was still the real Hoover, similar elements on those vacs from the original models etc. When TTI bought it out it basically became a husk. Nothing "Hoover" on the shelves are actually really Hoover. And Hoovers quality dropped ALOT

 

[eureka1998]

eurekaprince

Sometimes when ive heard where people say the Juniors were made, they say Hoover Limited of GB. What was the difference between Hoover and Hoover Limited. Just difference in manufacturing location?

 

[eurekaprince]

Not really sure what the answer is. I guess depending on the corporate law in each nation, and depending on whether the company was privately owned or publicly traded on a stock exchange, the exact tag name would change. In the UK, you see the letter LLC a lot (limited liability company?).

Again, not really sure what the different corporate tags mean. Someone who is more of an expert in corporate law might be able to chime in here. I always find it fascinating looking at the various corporate names you will see on the rating plates of Eureka vacuums throughout its history: The Eureka Company, Eureka-Williams Company, Eureka-Williams Corporation - Division of National Union Electric Company, Eureka Company - Division of White Consolidated Industries, Eureka Division of North American Electrolux, Electrolux Floor Care of North America, Eureka Division of Onward Manufacturing in Canada, Euroclean Canada, etc.

It would be fun to start a thread of pictures of ratings plates from vacuum cleaners. We’d get to see the wide variety of corporate names branded underneath vacuum cleaners.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Eureka1998

From 1932 until 1982, vacuums that were made at Hoover Limited in the U.K. were produced at that division's historic Perivale plant in England.

After the closure of the Perivale plant, U.K. production moved to Cambuslang, Scotland; part of the old Perivale facility was bought out by the food chain Tesco, which had operated a "superstore" there in the '90s.

As to Eureka, in 1974 the Eureka Williams Co. was bought out by the Swedish-based Electrolux AB; this purchase changed the name from Eureka Williams Co. to The Eureka Co.

~Ben

 

[rugsucker]

The Hoover Perivale factory --

--is often featured in Art Deco style books.