Perdio Ltd.
Dunstan House, St. Cross Street, Hatters Garden, London EC1 (1959)
Perdio House, Bonhill Street, London EC2 (1961)

Perdio Electronics Ltd.
Bonhill Street, London EC2 (1962)

Perdio Products Ltd.
Lowther Road, Stanmore, Middlesex (1966)

The name comes form PERsonal raDIO.

Perdio were the first British manufacturers to produce domestic transistor radio and television receivers.[1]

The company was registered as private company in 1956 and converted to a public company in 1962, chnaging their name in the same year.[1]

In 1965 they made application for permission to go into voluntary liquidation. They owned Kenure, Holt and Co. and Electric Audio Repoducers Ltd.

End of 1965/beginning of 1966, Dansette Products Ltd. took over the assets of Perdio Electronics.[2]

Perdio Products Ltd., subsidiary of Dansette Products Ltd., announced in 1966 that the company is fully operational at the new premises in Stanmore. They were looking for Transistor Radio Service Engineers in September 1966, and held an individual trade exhibition in late August 1968.

The well known collector James Butters wrote this page supported by documented references:

This company never made tube/valve radios and were wholly committed to the new transistor electronics industry. They also manufactured portable TV's and record players.

In 1957 they released their first radio, model PR1. It probably wasn't the success they had hoped for as the following year they made a loss of £8000. In 1958 they released the Super 7 (PR7), the first of four radios that used the same chassis (PC-16) as the Piccadilly (In sales brochures it was referred to as "The Mightiest Midget of Them All!"). The Super 7 was sold in a standard rexine covered cabinet or alternatively the deluxe version was available covered in leather or pigskin.

After the release of the Piccadilly, Perdio offered the third radio in this series, the Park Lane (PR23) in January 1961. It was another rexine covered radio reminiscent of earlier square lunchbox examples with its handle on top. The Park Lane was also sold under the name 'Challenge'. It was March 1962 that Perdio offered the last radio to use this chassis, the modernistic londoner (PR30) in a simple perforated plastic cabinet (also branded as a 'Sparton', with PC-16 stamped on the circuit board). Perdio were doing well, business was brisk, transistor radios were all the rage and that year they made a profit of £172,000.

In 1963 Perdio built a huge new 115,000 sq. ft. factory on the Pallion Industrial Estate in Sunderland. Perdio moved their operations from a number of London sites to this one location. It was a risky venture and the company ended up losing £279,000 in profits that year.

In 1964 Perdio began importing some radios and re branding them but it was also reported in 'Electrical Times' that their domestic production "has been and is increasing". Perhaps it was increasing, but not quickly enough it seems, for in 1965 they vacated their factory and went into liquidation. Their speedy demise was complicated by a failed takeover bid but in reality they simply could not sustain profitability and folded under intense pressure from foreign competition; principally imports from the Far East. Imports from this part of the world now accounted for 50% of all transistor portables on sale in England.

Following their collapse Perdio sets were ironically made in Hong Kong and bore the legend "Empire Made". Radios bearing the Perdio logo continued to be churned out until at least 1972. In all Perdio made at least 56 different models between 1957 and 1972.

[1] = Wireless World, November 1965, p.551
[2] = Wireless World, January 1966, p.22