PART TWO – Origins of the Walter Barr CompanyThe origins of companies are always interesting … to me anyway.
This is a great story about how a typical company starts small, grows, and then
is subject to takeover by big business.
This is what I have pieced together …
The story starts in the early 1920s with a ‘sparkie’,
Bruce C. Berg, of Upper Avenue Road,
Mosman, Sydney. He advertised as doing “electrical installation and maintenance,” and
you could phone him ‘anytime’! Folks were more sensible back then...
By the late 1920s, Bruce C Berg was an electrical contractor and advertised
“Everything Electrical”. That’s ambitious, and the Blue Mountains location would
have been spectacular! Clearly, Bruce C Berg was ambitious…
Everything changed in the 1930s. The evidence shows that Bruce built up his
little company to the extent that a
partnership was formed in September, 1936.
The company –
Bruce Berg and Company Ltd., would operate from
Larkin Street,
Camperdown and then
73 George Street, Redfern.Yes, you will notice that the first directors included one
Walter Barr. That, at least, explains the future 1941 name change to this company.
In the meantime, evidence suggests that Bruce Berg & Co was expanding,
and secured Commonwealth government contracts for plastics used in
electrical equipment during the war years.
But it was during these turbulent war years that a significant change occurred.
The company was renamed as
Walter Barr Pty. Ltd. In late 1941.
The partnership that formed Bruce Berg Co was dissolved in early 1942.
Three of the founding directors jumped ship. Who was left? Why, the
other director,
Walter Barr!Walter Barr took advantage of the new uses for plastics in the war years.
A new factory was established at
Gillespie Avenue, Alexandria, and classified
advertising records shown the company regularly seeking employees for
defence work.
The thing is that Walter Barr, post WWII, would be confronted with exponential
demand from the domestic plastics market – the uses of plastics in the household.
This was the golden age of the development of plastics for consumer uses.
You will not guess who saw this in 1946 …
Walter Barr would be subject of a buy-out by BIG business…
TO BE CONTINUED ...