Vidor Limited 1934 - 1989

Thomas Noah Cole, the previous managing director of Lissen, established Vidor Limited in 1934. He left Lissen following its take over by Ever-Ready and purchased the Burndept radio company, and set up the Vidor battery company to be in direct competition with Lissen/Ever-Ready. However, as a concession to Ever-Ready, he agreed not to run Burndept or Vidor himself and so employed R. P. Richardson to be the Managing Director. Cole fought this agreement and a resulting out-of-court settlement led to strained relations between the companies which was made worse by the popularity of Vidor batteries and their competitive prices. The name Vidor came from the initials of his two daughters, Valerie and Denise, and his wife, Rebecca.

The company focused on the manufacture of radios and batteries for radios. In 1962, Cole retired and sold the company to Royston Industries. Under Royston Industries, the company grew and in 1965 they signed a large contract with India which was its 6th for battery manufacturing in two years. A further contract signed in 1966 with STC helped to establish the Vidor name internationally, along with other contracts signed in this year with the US and Bulgaria.

However, in 1967, the company had started to make losses and Royston Industries collapsed in 1968. At this point, Vidor was acquired by Crompton Parkinson. In 1989 the company was sold again to Ray-O-Vac but Vidor has since gone dormant.