Colebourn Celebrates Their Centenary In Style

The Gala dinner was held at Vagabonds Rugby Club, who Colebourns sponsor, to thank current and past members of staff for their contribution to the Company’s success.

Pre-dinner drinks were followed by a welcome from Phil Colebourn. After dinner Tony Lyth gave a brief history of the company.

Many of Colebourn’s staff have been with the company for many years. Long service awards were presented by Phil Colebourn and Mike Lyth to those who have been with the company for over 15 years. These included Steve Wilson (Sales) - 16 years, Ronnie Fletcher (Installation) - 17 years, Christine Duff (Office) - 22 years, Andrew Ennett (IT) - 29 years, Mark Gell (Service Engineer)- 42 years, Paul Killey (Installation) 45 years, and the longest serving member of staff, Diane Magee (Office) who incredibly has been with the Company for 58 years!

There was then a quiz followed by the Tony James Disco.

Colebourns was founded by the late T H Colebourn in 1924 in Gore’s Rock Shop in Castle Street which was closed for the winter. They moved to a shop on the corner of King Street and Ridgeway Street the following spring, which is still part of their building today. They manufactured their own wireless sets named ‘Cleartone’.

During the war, Colebourns cooperated with the British War Deptartment and built a secret radio transmitter to confuse German bombers heading for Liverpool.

After the war, TV started in London and spread from the provinces, but the rapid expansion of TV was not rapid enough for Colebourns. The Isle of Man was being left out, so in 1952 Colebourns built and operated the first TV booster on the island, quite illegally. This was installed on their Douglas Head service department, which is now Manx Radio. They were told to turn it off by various authorities but steadfastly refused to do so.

The highlight was the transmission of the coronation of the Queen when official permission to operate the station was obtained. After that it was difficult to enforce the closing of the station, and it was shortly afterwards that the BBC set up their own station. The engineer in charge had instructions to report to Colebourns for instructions and assistance in bringing the station into operation as soon as possible.

PA systems were part of the business of most radio dealers after the war, and Colebourns expanded their PA activities to encompass all the island’s racing: car racing on the Clypse course, the TT, MGP, and cycle racing on the TT course. The round the course broadcast started involving hundreds of speakers and dozens of amplifiers. Commentaries were introduced from various points and telephone lines were hired to conduct the whole commentary round the 37 mile course.

T H C Trust Ltd was formed in 1958 to fund the rapid expansion of TV Rental and Hire Purchase. Rental received a huge boost in the late 60s with the introduction of colour TV and again in the 70s with the introduction of video recorders. TVs were expensive and unreliable in those days so it made sense to rent your telly, knowing that if there was a problem Colebourns’ engineer would be there the same day to repair or replace it.

Gramophone records were also a big part of the business in the 60s, 70s and 80s. There was a record room upstairs which had booths installed in which people could listen to the latest records. Record sales declined with the development of the microchip and the growth in sales of home computers and software.

In 1997 Colebourns sold their first 42” Plasma TV for £10,000.

In 2010 Colebourns expanded into home appliances, which has now become a huge part of the business. They now carry hundreds of items in stock and have 2 vans on the road installing up to 80 free-standing and built-in appliances each week.

Colebourns joined the Euronics Group some years ago. This has allowed them to have the right products in the right place at the right time.

‘T H’ realised at an early stage that no one could be expected to buy expensive new toys unless they could be guaranteed good sales and after-sales service. This theme which started so long ago continues to this day, and is undoubtedly the largest contributing factor to the company’s success. Customers are the most important part of any retail operation and so often these days this is being overlooked.

At any time over the last 100 years you could call in to their Victoria Street Showroom and talk to a Colebourn.