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Endpoint: Schneider (Audio & Video [FR])



created on: 6/01/2026
by: bob (10457)
 
 

Brand properties

General info :
Schneider was a brand name used by Schneider Frères SA, a French company dedicated to the purchase and sale of audio equipment, founded in 1934 by brothers Jacques and Sacha Schneider in Paris.
It ceased operations in 2005 and is now part of the Schneider Consumer Group.

Jacques and Sacha Schneider were born in Czernowitz (Austro-Hungarian Empire). Orphaned at a young age, they grew up in a modest home. Jacques was a promising inventor. After the war, an engineer who recognized his technical abilities took him under his wing and recommended France. Around 1930, Jacques was in Paris. He soon brought his younger brother to France. Between 1931 and 1933, the elder brother had already launched numerous projects. Living on Boulevard de Sébastopol, he managed the companies Netvason and then Ultrason in 1933.

In 1934, the two brothers, who had been living together in Paris since 1933, introduced the Pygmée mains-powered radio, whose innovation on the market was the small size of a preselector radio with a band filter. They subsequently established Schneider Frères, a company dedicated to "the purchase and sale of radio equipment."

In 1936, launching a new company, SERT – Société de construction d’appareils électro radio – they moved to rue Daudin.

By 1939, Schneider already occupied one of the leading positions in the French market and the workshop on rue Daudin, which started with fifty people, already employed two hundred.

In 1945, upon their return from the Vercors, they restarted their business by creating the new company Schneider Frères SA. This company took over the management of SERT, whose assets it would definitively absorb in 1954.

The first Schneider television set was manufactured as early as 1947. Faced with this growing success, the premises on rue Daudin became too small. In 1952, the Schneider brothers took over the land of a rubber retreading workshop in Ivry-sur-Seine and set up their factory there. Typical of the 1950s, the Schneider factory was organized according to the standard model. 120 people worked there at the time.

The brand was among the first to launch HF radios in 1957-1958. In 1958, as the market was about to take off and televisions were entering it, Sacha and Jacques Schneider renamed their company. From then on, it would be known as Schneider Radio Télévision SA (SRT).

Very quickly, Ivry-sur-Seine and its 800 workers and employees were no longer sufficient to ensure production, despite astonishing production rates: a radio receiver every 80 seconds and a television every three minutes, compared to 4.5 minutes two years earlier.

The Schneider family embarked on the construction of a state-of-the-art factory in Le Mans, as the company's growth at the end of the 1950s was meteoric. The Le Mans factory was inaugurated in 1963. At its opening, Schneider Le Mans employed 1,200 people, 80% of whom were women aged 18 to 30. Upon its commissioning, the factory produced 1,200 radios and record players and 500 televisions daily. By 1963, Schneider's tube and transistor radios were being sold in more than fifty countries, and its multi-definition televisions were well established in Switzerland and Belgium. In 1969, with a workforce of 2,500, the factory produced its millionth television.

In 1960, the market for tube and transistor radios, record players, and televisions was as follows: SRT held approximately 10% of the market, far behind Radiotechnique with 30%, but very close to the 12% share held by Pathé-Marconi (Thomson-Houston) and Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (Ribet Desjardins , Grammont, and Sonneclaire brands). After acquiring a research and development company in 1961, SRT entered into agreements that same year with Philco Corporation, a Ford Motor subsidiary eager to conquer the French market. The radio and television equipment of this brand would be manufactured in Le Mans and marketed through a Franco-American company, Soframel.

In fact, a professional electronics division was created in 1964. A dedicated laboratory started with about ten people. Its staff reached around fifty by 1968-1969. Specializing in digital instrumentation and desktop calculators, this division developed, with the Ivry design office, a " Digital Multimeter " and then launched a range of electronic calculators under the Exacronique brand in 1969. This was the first French range of electronic calculators for desktop use, and Schneider became, in the same move, the leading exporter in France.

In 1965, the Schneider family took control of the Compagnie Générale de Télévision et d'Électronique (CGTVE). To the 100,000 televisions already manufactured annually by the company were added 60,000 sold under the brands Amplix, Telemaster, Tevea, and Arphone. Initially, CGTVE retained its autonomy, but in 1967, production was fully relocated to Le Mans, and the sales networks merged in 1970. The Schneider network then reached nearly 4,000 distributors nationwide.

In 1970, SRT produced 230,000 television sets and 150,000 radio sets. Various operations enabled it to increase its market share to 15% of the total, with television sales alone accounting for 25% of the sector. Besides its third-place ranking for television sets and radio sets, behind Thomson (350,000 units) and Radiotechnique (250,000), Schneider held a leading position in digital measuring instruments. The total workforce was 3,600, including 250 engineers and managers; 2,500 people worked in Le Mans and over 1,000 in Ivry-sur-Seine – in design offices, laboratories, headquarters, sales, etc.

In 1973 Schneider launched Popsy, one of the very first portable televisions. Weighing less than ten kilos, it was available in three colours – white, red or yellow.

But in the 1970s, formidable competitors emerged from Southeast Asia, and their wave swept away many major French industrial companies. Not being a leader anywhere, and in the context of a television market downturn, SRT was forced to relinquish its independence. In 1970, SRT's turnover was 300 million francs, but for the first time in its history, the company posted losses, amounting to 15 million francs. SRT was in difficulty and had to find a solution. This solution then took shape with La Radiotechnique, a subsidiary of Philips.
SRT obtained its cathode ray tubes from La Radiotechnique and its semiconductors from TSF and La Radiotechnique. This made La Radiotechnique its main creditor. When cash flow became critical, the consolidation of its trade debt offered a way out. In 1971, a joint subsidiary of Philips and SRT, CELMANS, was created. Philips held a 51% stake. In exchange for contributing its Le Mans factory, SRT acquired a 49% share.
The factory would henceforth manufacture televisions under the Radiola, Philips, and Schneider brands.

As consumer electronics diversified, the Philips group, under its various brands, now manufactured all types of products, such as answering machines and video game consoles. Examples include the Schneider Telelude in 1977 and the Videopac, a game console designed by Magnavox and manufactured by Philips, notably under the Schneider brand.

This was the first video recorder in 1981. Also in 1982, the launch of Titus, a television whose chassis of a new model and designed in the Ivry laboratory met with great success.

In 1984, TV decoders for Canal+ and colour videotext terminals, HiFi-Laser, etc. were launched. Also in 1984, Philips launched the Philips VG5000µ computer, which was to be marketed under the Philips, Radiola and Schneider brands.

Philips marketed Schneider devices until 2005, while Radiola was discontinued in 2002.

Following the sale of Philips' audio and video division to Gibson in 2015, the Radiola and Schneider brands were sold the same year to the French company Admea.
This company took the name Schneider Consumer Group.
Relations :
Brand name used by [2015 - 2019] : Admea SA
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Brand name used by [1971 - 2005] : Celmans SA
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Brand name used by [2019 -] : Schneider Consumer Group SA
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Brand name used by [1945 - 1958] : Schneider Frères SA
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Brand name used by [1958 - 1971] : Schneider Radio Television SA
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Previously known as : Schneider Frères
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Previously known as : Schneider Radio-Télévision
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Source :
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Item number : 71676

Submitted by : bob (10457)
on : 06/01/2026
Refined by : bob (10457)
Last updated on: 06/01/2026