Spartus

"Utility Manufacturing Company" redirects here. For the trailer manufacturer, seeUtility Trailer Manufacturing Company.

Spartus Corporation

Trade name	Spartus Home Furnishings
Formerly	Utility Manufacturing Company (1934–1951) Herold Manufacturing Company (1951–1956) Herold Products Company, Inc. (1956–1960)
Industry	Consumer electronics Manufacturing
Founded	1934(1934)inChicago, Illinois,United States
Founder	Jack Galter
Defunct	2001(2001)
Fate	Acquired byKiddein 1970, itself acquired byHanson Trustin 1987; rights sold toGeneral Time Corporationin the mid-1990s, laterSalton, Inc.,in 2001
Products	Alarm clocks Analog camerasand equipment Electric shavers Wall clocks
Number of employees	Over 1,000 (c.1980, peak)

Spartus Corporationwas an Americanconsumer electronicsmanufacturer originally based inChicago, Illinois.Founded as theUtility Manufacturing Companyin 1934, it produced a wide variety of products, includingwall clocks,alarm clocks,electric shavers,analog cameras,and more. It sold these through a medley of brands—includingFalcon,Spartus,Galter,Regal,Monarch,Spencer,among others. It was founded in 1934 by Jack Galter (1904–1993) as a continuation of his father's manufacturing company.

In 1951, Utility was purchased by its sales manager, Harold Rubin, who renamed the companyHerold Manufacturing Company.In 1960, Rubin adopted the Spartus trademark for the company's name, and in 1963, Spartus moved its headquarters toLouisville, Mississippi.It maintained a manufacturing prescience in the town until the early 1990s. In 1970, Spartus was acquired by theKidde & Company,and made a subsidiary. Kidde itself was purchased by a U.S. arm of theHanson Trust,Spartus being acquired by extension. Manufacturing of Spartus products was permanently moved to mainland China in 1993.Salton, Inc.,of Florida later acquired the rights to the Spartus trademark in 2001.

History

The Spartus Press Flash, cited as the first camera with a built-in flash reflector

Spartus was founded as the Utility Manufacturing Company inChicago, Illinois,in 1934 byJack Galter(1904–1993).Galter was a Russian-born immigrant whose family first moved to Chicago, and, later,Sutton, Nebraska.In his 20s, Galter was ajazzandloungedrummer who played for such giants asBenny Goodman,David Rose,andDanny Alvin.In his early 30s, during theGreat Depression,he founded Utility as an extension of his father's manufacturing business.During the 1930s, Utility manufactured a wide array ofanalog cameraequipment, selling them under a medley of trademarks, including Falcon, Galter, Monarch, Regal, Spartus, and Spencer, among others.Most notable was their Spartus Press Flash camera, a camera cast inBakelite.Historians consider the Spartus Press Flash the first camera with a built-in flash reflector.

In 1951, Utility's sales manager Harold Rubin purchased the company from Galter and renamed it the Herold Manufacturing Company, still based in Chicago.Rubin changed the name to Herold Products Company, Inc., in 1956. In 1960, he changed the name again to Spartus Corporation, adopting the name of one its most popular trademarks.The company by this point was more well known for theirwallandalarm clocksandelectric shaversthan their camera equipment. In 1963, Spartus broke ground for a new headquarters and manufacturing complex inLouisville, Mississippi,which was completed in 1964.Spartus remained an integral part of the Louisville's industrial community for decades, the company reaching the 1,000 employee mark in 1970, stabilizing at that number toward the end of the decade.Many of Spartus' employees were represented by theInternational Union of Electrical Workers.

In 1970, Spartus was acquired by theKidde & Company,then a diversified American manufacturing company (currently more well known for their fire safety products), for $24 million in astock swap(equivalent to $188.3 million in 2023).Spartus was then made a subsidiary of Kidde, continuing in this capacity for nearly two decades. In 1987 alone, Spartus manufactured 7 million clocks and generated between $75 million to $100 million in sales. In August that year, Kidde was purchased by Hanson Industries, the U.S. arm ofHanson Trust,a British holding company.Hanson acquired Spartus by extension.Under the auspices of Hanson, Spartus changed their trade name to Spartus Home Furnishings, Inc., and began moving manufacturing overseas, at first to Taiwan, later to mainland China.Later, in the mid-1990s, Spartus' clock manufacturing concern was acquired by theGeneral Time Corporation,whose trademark roster includedWestclox and Big Ben.After General Time went bankrupt in 2001,Salton, Inc.,owners of theGeorge Foreman Grill,purchased the rights to their trademarks—including Spartus—in August that year.

External links

• Entry for Spartusat Camera-wiki.org