British Automatic Co. Ltd
Last month, I suggested that BAC may have been a fairly large concern, and that
it seemed odd that a company that appears to have traded for half a century or
more should just disappear into obscurity. Here's what I've learnt so far:
A month ago, most of us knew no more about BAC than what we've discovered so far
with regard to the BAC/Simplex metal label stampers. However, within a couple of
days of the magazines landing on everyone's doo1mats, I received info1mation from
Cliff Prince and Kevin Gowland, and I realised why BAC had appeared so obscure;
their core business was vending, rather than amusement machines. So, having been
steered in the right direction, I was able to research fu1iher, and can now reveal that the
British Automatic Company Ltd. was absolutely huge! In fact, they may well have been
the largest British coin-op. company of all time.
It appears they were primarily an operating business, and the machines they
operated included: chocolate venders; cigarette & match venders; weighing machines
and, of course, metal label stampers. Their p1ime sites were railway stations, and this
gives us an idea of just how big BAC could have been. Between the wars, Britain's
railways were operated by 'the big four' , and the concession with just one of these
railway companies would have been massive. Although I have been unable to gain any
confirmation at this stage, it appears that BAC did indeed have the concession with the
Great Western Railway, and the fact that they had an office in Bristol might support
this. Perhaps their biggest operation though, was in London. Bob Klepner has once
again been most helpful in my quest for information, and has confirmed that BAC
operated machines on the entire London Underground. Every vending machine and
weighing machine, in eve1y station was a BAC; this concession alone would have been
a massive operation.
So how far did the BAC operating empire spread? Well, we can gain a clue by
referring back to the front cover of the operating manual for their later, post war label
stamper, which I published last month. In addition to their main office and works
address in London and a branch in Bristol, they also had offices in Manchester and
Glasgow, which would suggest a nationwide operation; it would certain ly place BAC in
an ideal situation to serve the LMS railway (the largest of the big four). They also had
branches in Belfast and Dublin - so they had Northern and Southern Ireland covered.
And then there's their office in Brussels, which seems to indicate BAC were vend ing
Nestles' chocolate and Woodbine fags on the continent too!
Front cover picture: A fine collection of cast iron machines on a railway station in the
1930s. Although only three machines can be positively identified, it is likely that they
were al! owned and operated by the British Automatic Company Ltd. I wonder whether
this may have been a publicity shot - the platform does look rather overcrowded!
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