Berwick Toy Company Limited

Initially, at least, this is going to be a fairly spare offering, however, I thought I really ought to create a separate page for Berwick's, not least in order to solicit your help in filling out the page! I will, of course, give full attribution, as usual. So, if you do have any information on Berwick's, I'd love to hear from you…
…anyway, back to the script!
In common with many startup companies, even today, C.B. Plimpton used the services of a marketing company with significant experience of the target market. In the case of Plimpton Engineering, BAYKO's manufacturer, they chose : -
Berwick's BAYKO advert September, 1935in 'Meccano Magazine'
Berwick's Toy Company Limited
1A South Hunter Street
Liverpool 1
Lancashire
also styled as : -
Berwick's & Co.
Feb 1936 BAYKO advert - by Berwicks
If you would like to find out more of the results of Berwick's influence, it's best seen in the earliest [pre-1938] BAYKO adverts, so I suggest you follow the link [below] to the main Advertising Navigation page and sample some of the links there…
The two adverts shown here [right above, and left] are examples of Berwick's Toy Company Limited marketing work [it's surprising how cavalier they were with the way they presented themselves in print, no suggestion of consistent brand image management]. Fair play though, although they quickly dropped to a half page, the impact is still pretty good.
Here comes Fred!
The link between Berwick's and Plimpton came under strain in 1938 when Fred Rogerson, of Berwick's, persuaded C.B. Plimpton to bring the Sales / Marketing functions in house - with him leading it - which is exactly what happened.
I doubt Berwick's were pleased at the loss of either their senior man, or the the Plimpton account, but they were big enough to survive the loss.
This move presumably significantly impacted the relaunch of BAYKO in its 'New Series' form in May, 1939. However, there is a 'continuum' in the [slightly] earlier launch of the 20s series of BAYKO sets, with which, wearing his Berwick's hat, Fred Rogerson would certainly have been involved in.
O.K., let's just back pedal a couple of years. In their second year of advertising BAYKO, Berwick's continued with a short series of adverts in which they incorporated it with other products they represented as you can see : -

1936

1937

November
December
November
December
MM November 1936.
MM December 1936.
MM November 1936.
MM December 1937.
The above adverts were both full pages.
The above adverts were both double full pages.

The contrast between the 1936 images [left, above] and those of the following year, 1937 [right, above] is interesting - is it possible that they thought BAYKO was popular enough to draw more young eyes into the advert? Whatever the rationale Plimpton were presumably happy with this association - “Two entirely different toys, but each supreme in its own class” - as the script read in November, 1936.
If you click on any of the four images [above] you will launch a larger, more legible version.
We're now - at least until I can ferret out the truth - in speculative territory, but, at around the same time, or a little later, there was a toy manufacturing operation, also called Berwick Toys, in Wallasey [where C.B. Plimpton lived] on the Wirral peninsular, just across the Mersey from Liverpool.
This operation produced a wide variety toys, from board games to merchandise linked to T.V. series, and many more in between.
I've struggled to confirm or deny any links between the operations, in deed the only Companies House references that I can find are three incompletely documented attempts to wind up the company [but which?], for financial reasons, in 1986, 1987 and 1989.
If you can help with this conundrum, or have any other information on Berwick's, then I'd love to hear from you…

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