The American-owned British television and radio manufacturer Kolster-Brandes Ltd was formed in 1930 as the result of a merger between the American parent company of Brandes Ltd and the Kolster Radio Corporation.

Brandes Ltd was established in Slough in 1924 as a branch of American AT&T which had acquired Brandes of Toronto in 1922. The Canadian company was established in 1908. Brandes Ltd was a successful manufacturer of radio accessories, including loudspeakers and headphones. In 1928, Brandes Ltd moved to its new works in a former silk mill at Foots Cray in Sidcup, Kent.

In 1930, Kolster-Brandes Ltd supplied 40,000 of its Masterpiece two-valve, bakelite cabinet radios to the Godfrey Phillips tobacco company, who gave them away to customers in exchange for cigarette coupons.

In 1938 Kolster Brandes was reorganised under the ownership of International Telephones and Telecommunications (ITT)'s British subsidiary Standard Telephones & Cables (STC). This led to Kolster-Brandes Ltd winning the contract to install television receivers in the Queen Mary ocean liner, and subsequently in other Cunard liners. Following this, most of the company’s television receivers were given model names that reflected its link with Cunard.

From 1960 onwards, Kolster-Brandes Ltd acquired the brand names Ace, RGD, Argosy and Regentone. The company continued manufacturing television receivers under the RGD brand into the 1960s.