 | |
| Industry | Electronics |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1915 |
| Headquarters | Swindon, United Kingdom, |
| Products | turntables |
| Parent | Plessey (1960-1978) Gradiente (1979-1992) Loricraft Audio (1997-2018) Cadence Audio SA (2018-current) |
| Website | https://garrardturntables.co.uk |
The Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company of Swindon, Wiltshire, was a British company that was famous for producing high-quality gramophone turntables. It was formed by the jewellers Garrard & Co in 1915. The company was sold to Plessey, an electronics conglomerate, in 1960. During the period 1976-1978, Garrard developed demonstrators of the novel video disc technology. Although the team recognised the future potential of this data storage technology, Plessey chose not to invest. After several years in decline, Garrard was sold by Plessey to Gradiente Electronics of Brazil in 1979 and series production was moved to Brazil (Manaus). The remaining Garrard research and development operation in Swindon was reduced to a skeleton operation until 1992. Then, Gradiente licensed the Garrard name to Terence O'Sullivan, who operated as Loricraft Audio, in 1997.
Between 1992 and 1997, the Garrard brand name was licensed to other companies in the US, which imported electronic items built by different, unrelated Far Eastern manufacturers. These included "Garrard" branded cassette decks, CD players, stereo receivers, portable radio/cassette players, portable "Walkman" type cassette players, serial-port printer cables, universal TV/audio remote controls, and other miscellany, including turntables that had no connection with any original Garrard design.
In 2018, Cadence Audio SA, who also own the British turntable and tonearm manufacturer SME Limited, took ownership of the Garrard brand and registered trademarks when they purchased Loricraft Audio Ltd. The business was restructured to run under the name of Garrard Turntables UK Ltd.