Founded in Milano, Italy by Romeo Maestri in 1919 the Company first manufactured various kinds of seals like string safety seals, seals for mills and post parcels. Maestri’s wife and two children helped to run the Company. His son Bruno Meastri introducing a new product in the 1930’s. The office stapler. He launched the RO-MA (Romeo Maestri) stapling plier, followed by TENAX and PROTOFIX desk stapler (shown below and also for sale here).
Svend Olufsen (born 1897) and his friend Peter Bang (born 1900), Both from Denmark started working together from the attic on the Olufsen family house late 1924. In 1925 they registered their business in the city of Struer and the B&O Company was a fact. Mr. Bang did the tech and production side and Mr. Olufsen did the sales and money side.
They worked hard and made some significant discoveries to which they scored some patents. Sound and later images made up the bulk of their products leading to radio’s and later television and sounds sets. Yet they also made electric razors until the middle of the 1950’s. Svend Olufsen died at age 52 in 1949 and Peter Bang died age 57 in 1957. Their Company kept going strong though. To make this more clear, find below the 1978 advertisements from B&O and Philips. There are definitely some differences in approach.
