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In the Beginning...
White & Gillespie (Melb) Pty. Ltd. came into being in 1910
when A.E. White and J.D. Gillespie formed a partnership, purchased equipment and
began business manufacturing duplicate printing plates, namely Stereotypes and
Electrotypes. The Business prospered and grew steadily with the principals
visiting overseas on a regular basis to keep abreast of new techniques, newly
developed raw materials and to buy the latest equipment.
Originally sited in Patrick Street, the Melbourne operations out grew their
premises twice before moving to their own premises built at 185 A'beckett Street
Melbourne in 1938.
In 1928, a Sydney division was opened and managed by a brother of A.E. White
with support from the Melbourne directors who travelled to Sydney quite
regularly by train.
In 1931, Rubber Stereos were added to the product range, introduced into
Australia by White & Gillespie.
In the same year, as the move to A'beckett Street, a diversification was made by
adding Radio transcription records to the product range. A wholly owned
subsidiary W&G Record Processing Co. handled this activity.
At the commencement of World War 2 in 1939 the company became involved in the
War effort through the department of defence and a range of navigational aids
and range finding devices for a variety of Guns were made for the duration of
the War. Some 250,000 instruments were made during this time and were used
globally by the allied forces. These items were made under the Trade Mark
W&G. Printing Plate manufacture had continued as the core activity during
this period.
At the conclusion of the War, a range of drawing instruments including Drafting
Machine Scales, Hand Scales, Slide Rules, and many other specially made
instruments were produced along with the transcription records still being
produced for Radio Stations.
During this time the Reproduction division grew and new machinery and technology
were introduced as they became available.
White & Gillespie were the first in Australia to manufacture Micro Groove
records, initially on a custom pressing basis. As other record companies began
their own production, White & Gillespie developed their own catalogue to
maintain pressing volume. It was at this time that the W&G label was
introduced producing both local and imported artists on the Australian and New
Zealand markets. W&G had its own recording studios, pressing plant and
company owned distribution outlet in each State. In 1977, with the introduction
of the cassette and subsequent demise of the LP market, the record and
instrument plants were sold along with the instrument process. To this day,
W&G instruments are still being produced.
In 1967 a major development was embraced by White & Gillespie with the
introduction of Dycril, a new photopolymer plate developed by Dupont. This now
allowed the company to produce original plates instead of duplicates only . In
addition, powder-less etching of both Zinc and Magnesium was added which
broadened this new thrust.
The Vacurate process was another innovative technique developed and pioneered by
White & Gillespie which allowed a much higher quality Rubber printing plate
to be manufactured. This process is still in use today allowing us to claim the
most accurate Rubbers in the world.
In 1993, White & Gillespie entered the new world of Digital Graphic
Reproduction. Although mainstream Litho businesses had been using Digital
equipment for some years, productive Software tools were not available
until 1993.
After 94 years in the Industry, we believe that we are the most experienced
people for the job.
We also believe that there is a lot of history yet to be written and we look
forward to you joining us in this quest!
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