1968 “Real-Time” Terminals were linked from Berkeley Square to a GE115 Computer in Palazzo Uffici the International HQ in Ivrea over 800 miles away. The Real-Time terminals demonstrated were the TE300 and the TCV250 Video Terminal.
BOL organised a press launch of the self-instruction book for the Programma 101, the self-tuition session should take approximately 10 hours.
United Friendly Insurance Company placed a substantial order for TC102 Real-Time Terminals to be connected to their English Electric 4/50 computer. BEA placed an order for teleprinters and fast serial printers. Data Transmission Division won both orders.
The first numerically controlled machines the “Auctor Simplex” were delivered in February and supplied to Brooklands Engineering Co Ltd. Brooklands provided components for aircraft, racing cars and radar systems. Four other companies placed orders including equipment destined for the Olivetti Glasgow factory.
Despite the proliferation of electric typewriters Olivetti launched the Linear 88 in the spring described as the Manual Typewriter with the Perfect Touch. The BBC purchased 300 machines following a visit to the factory by the ‘Buyer’ to inspect the production and test facilities.
BBC went to Berkeley Square to film the ’71 range and see a demonstration of instant switching from £.s.d. (Word spell check suggested that this was ‘sad’) to decimals.
Cricklewood was featured in the May issue with the transfer of the spare parts store moving from Worship Street to Building No 6 at Cricklewood Trading Estate close to the Central Warehouse in Building No 4. The new Studio 45 provided the features of a standard typewriter in tough carry case that was removed for operation.
The new Studio45 provided the features of a standard typewriter in a tough carrying case that was removed for operation.
The new GPO GIRO Centre was opened in October the television film on both BBC channels featured the Olivetti equipment installed at Bootle.
In a change of layout from September the newsletter carried extracts of the notices circulated in the Company from the MD’s office, also more photographs were included of staff being promoted.
The autumn saw the introduction of the Copia 105 desktop copier. Selling for £129 10s 0d the first copy was produced in 10 seconds. A unique feature was the self contained toner cartridge that could be replaced without fuss or mess.
A new Marketing Division was announced in September, which included the Data Transmission and Special Products Branch.
Olivetti International S.A. (a subsidiary entirely controlled by the Parent Company) purchased Fairchilds shareholding in Societa General Semiconduttori S.p.A. (SGS). This gave Olivetti Group the majority control of SGS. SGS was the largest manufacturer of semiconductors to be non-American owned.
An agreement was reached between Olivetti Mexico and the Mexican Olympic Games Committee for Olivetti to supply teleprinters, typewriters and furnishings for the pressrooms at the forthcoming games. This followed the Company’s success at the Rome and Tokyo Games in providing similar facilities.
The Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Harold Wilson opened the GPO GIRO Centre, during his visit he met Mr R Olivetti Joint MD of Ing.C Olivetti & C. S.p.A. Mr Loria Chairman BOL and Mr C. Alhadeff MD who had taken over from Mr G Sacco who had retired.
1969 The Data Transmission and Special Products Division won orders valued at greater than £1 million from two of the largest consortia with the Trustee Savings Banks Association.
P101 were supplied to NASA and used to help scientists study moon photographs and compute the dimensions of the pockmarked lunar surface from measurements of shadows cast by the crater walls.
(Only the January and October editions of the newsletter were available for research.)
1970 The format of the newsletter had changed by January 1970 and was similar size to a tabloid newspaper while the paper quality was reduced.
The Marketing Division expanded and contained the following product categories: Accounting Machines & Computers, Decimalisation & Add/Listing Machines, Visible Record Computers (this included Auditronic Systems) and, due to the complexity of new products, a Software & Systems Engineering Centre.
In February 244 salesmen received their Gold Badges and the top two won Mini cars! The top 94 salesmen spent a four day holiday in Majorca and Italy with a visit to Ivrea and Scarmagno.
Henley’s in Piccadilly displayed a Jaguar 420G with a Lettera de Luxe fitted into the glove box.
Auditronic Group together with the Press and Advertising personnel moved to 51 Berkeley Square.
In May it was announced that the expo “Olivetti Concept and Form” would be visiting Edinburgh and London in August through to November. The expo would have visited Paris, Barcelona and Madrid prior to reaching our shores. The themes of the expo were:
industrial architecture, research into industrial design and graphic design, publicity media and products.
The Glasgow factory celebrated its 21st birthday. Started in a garage in the city centre they moved to the new factory in 1951/2. An inward investment of £2 Million was made in 1968/9 and created 500 additional jobs.
In the summer Mr Elserino Piol gave a presentation at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel to mark the opening of new network of IDP branches. He predicted that computer terminals would fall into three categories: low cost typewriters like which would be portable and include a printer, display terminals including TV sets and special purpose terminals for use in industry, retail and ticket vending.
BOL’s MD Mr Alhadeff gave a speech to factory managers at the Glasgow works: his theme was “Unity” between the commercial and industrial operations. He stressed that as well as the major investment in manufacturing the commercial side of the business had been expanded:
· Sales staff increased from 500 to 1100
· Administration increased from 300 to 600
· Technical support increased from 400 from to 600.
An Olivetti Press Centre was established for the Commonwealth Games held in Edinburgh that provided facilities for over 1000 journalists. Egidio Bonfante who had been responsible for similar designs for the Olympic Games designed the centre. The Duke of Edinburgh visited the Centre and congratulated the GPO and Olivetti staff on their achievements.
A Programma 101 was installed on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth II, following successful trails on the Carmania. There was also a Programma on a nuclear sub.
The Olivetti “ Concept and Form” expo was opened in Edinburgh on August 20, this resulted in two half-hour TV programmes and over 500 visitors per day.
The Whitfield Street offices in London were opened to house five sales divisions.
The “Concept and Form” expo in London was housed in an inflatable housing on the concourse of Euston Station, the inflatable structure was 150 ft long and 30 ft high.
Richard Burton was spotted arriving at Heathrow carrying a Valentine portable typewriter complete with a Welsh insignia, his wife Elizabeth Taylor accompanied him.
Milton Glaser’s poster for the Valentino inspired by a picture by Piero di Cosimo, the original of which hangs in the National Gallery in London
“British Olivetti Unlimited” was the banner headline in November’s newsletter reporting on the seminar held at the Odeon Leicester Square for 1500 staff. Present were the entire staff of sales, sales support and technical managerial. The opportunity was taken to launch six new products: Logos 270 and 250, the Editor 3 and 3C, Summa 19 and Copia 205. The meeting was addressed by the MD and five Product Managers.
During the autumn a series of joint seminars were held with PA Management at branches across the country to introduce peripherals for the Auditronic 770 system. Substantial orders were received as a direct result of these presentations.
The Chairman summed up 1970 as “a year of vigorous activity” with a ten percent increase in personnel to 3600 and over £300,000 being spent on 160,000 hours of training. Is it no wonder that Olivetti were considered the training academe for the industry?
1971 The year of decimalisation had arrived, BOL were already gearing up for expansion in sales. The Company (excluding the Glasgow factory) had grown from 2103 members of staff at the start of 1970 to 2802 and more expansion was planned.
In January it was reported that a certain Mr A Watson had been appointed Technical Coordinator for the London Division. He had joined BOL in 1967 as a Management Trainee, a year later he was appointed District Service Manager Manchester Branch.
Three Special Account Managers received BMC 1100 cars as part of a special incentive scheme!
In January the appointment of Mr G Gastaldo-Brac to Manager, Technical Publications, based at the Technical Training School was announced. Mr Gastaldo-Brac had joined the Company in 1947 as an instructor in the Glasgow factory, having originally joined Olivetti in Ivrea in 1942.
“Our Own D-day Story” was the natural headline for the March issue celebrating Britain introducing decimal currency on February 15. During the frantic build up to the momentous day 200 seminars were held. A complete register of all machines needing upgrading was produced and customers were given conversion dates. 30 major articles were written and every customer mailed three times.
Aircraft were chartered to import £1,000,000 of equipment. The sales force had been increased from 500 to 1200 men. Even the sales staff helped in programming machines on customer’s premises.
Auditronic Division closed their office at 51 Berkeley Square and was decentralised to the branches, this it was hoped would lead to greater integration between sales teams.
BOL provided 40 terminals to the new Open University for use in their administration department.
In the Glasgow factory a new audio-visual training system was installed, the trainees watched pre-recorded tapes to learn facets of the assembly process, the audio instructions were either via headphones for an individual or loudspeakers for groups.
In April Mr Alhadeff was replaced as MD by Mr Riccardo Berla, who moved from Spain. Mr Alhadeff took up a new position in the USA.
During the spring the telecommunications division of Plessey, Nottingham took delivery of a £30,000 NC Machine, which enabled their production to increase by 50%. This was the first installation of this type of machine in the UK, which deployed the Olivetti Press Tool Automation Language (OPAL).
On the sporting front Frank McLintock, captain of Arsenal and Footballer of the Year attended Haslemere for two days to pick the team for the Olivetti international football event to be held in Ivrea in October.
A three stage management development course had been started at Haslemere with visiting lectures from leading American and British Universities.
During the summer a new trademark based on the Olivetti name and designed by Walter Ballmer had been introduced. The original logos used a capital for the name but since 1934 all lower case letters had been used.
The Institute of Office Management held a two day conference on “Visible Record Computers” an Olivetti Auditronic 770 was demonstrated running a payroll application.
Following on from Plessey’s order for NC machines a seminar was held at HO for 35 senior Plessey Managers. This led to an order for seventy TE308 Terminals. Some of the terminals used by engineers were linked via satellite to a computer centre in Cleveland Ohio.
Mr Berla addressing a conference of senior BOL managers in September said that “consolidation with progress” had to be the aim for 1971-2. The Company’s sales had not met expectations and the Company had grown rapidly like a teenager. During the conference managers were told that the Company were going to put a big reliance on the sale of IDP equipment.
A new format for the newsletter was introduced in October with a section devoted to press cuttings. News stories included in the newsletter covered the introduction of the new Programma 602 priced at £1,985 compared to £1485 for the P101. The new P602 included a 28K random access memory.
The Financial Times carried an article “Terminal power now a ‘remote’ certainty” written by a BOL Manager.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr A Barber was photographed using a TE308 Terminal at the new “Quotel” system that provided a computer based on-line service for the insurance profession.
The BOL football team sporting orange and white hooped shirts beat the Italian home team 4-1 in the match in Ivrea. The team from BOL had been given a nine page dossier on the background and tactics used in Italian football.
A twelve month expansion of Branksome Hilders Training Centre at Haslemere was started in the autumn. The design conceived by James Stirling is being constructed under the supervision of architect Edward Cullinan. (Edward Cullinan was responsible for the design of many of the BOL regional branches and details can be found on his website over twenty years later.) Branksome Hilders is still used as a conference centre/training establishment. Prior to Olivetti taking over the building it had been a boys public school.
1972 It was announced in the January edition that in future the newsletter would only be published every two months instead of monthly.
The Welsh Authority decided to standardise on Olivetti electric and manual typewriters for all their hospitals, this resulted in an initial contact for 600 Linea 88 typewriters.
“Save our Planet” was the theme for a series of ecological posters that were printed for Olivetti for sale. The profit from the sales went to UNICEF.
An order valued at over £110,00 was won for the NC machines following their launch at the “Machine Tool International 72” exhibition. The order comprised one Auctor IAP/CN5D a high precision NC jig borer and die sinker, plus an Auctor AUT 800 jig borer. Other equipment supplied included a TE308SH terminal and P602 microcomputer running “BOATS” British Olivetti Automated Toolroom System that was developed from Autodie used in the factories in Italy. BOATS, was jointly developed with the SIA computer bureau.
A review of the first 25 years was included in the September edition. The company by the end of 1972 employed 4000 staff, of whom 800 people were in the Glasgow factory where £5M had been invested and 900 in the nation wide service network. There were a total of 69 branches. Development in Milton Keynes was planned for administration offices and warehousing.
At the end of the year Alan Watson was appointed Technical Manager Olivetti Norge based in Oslo.
The introduction of VAT in 1973 was heralded by a seminar organised by BOL, the speaker from the Institute of Cost Managers warned delegates that traders, who would be responsible for collecting the new TAX, must manage their cash-flow very carefully. The speaker stressed that collecting VAT was a management not a bookkeeping problem. Other speakers included a representative of HM Customs and Excise and financial director from a major UK company.