Waterloo Public Library Digital Collections

Sunshine Waterloo Company Limited, Desk Viewing

Description

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Creator

Roy Purkis, Kitchener, Ontario, Photographer

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

Three men reviewing an executive desk manufactured at the Sunshine Waterloo Company. Douglas Ball is in the centre.

Notes

The Sunshine Waterloo Company (later SunarHauserman Limited) was started in 1930 as a joint venture of the H.V. McKay Company of Melbourne, Australia and the Waterloo Manufacturing Company, Limited to make combines for the North American and Argentine markets.

During the Depression the grain harvesters were being phased out as the farmers could not afford to buy them, and the company produced automotive stampings for cars. Waterloo Manufacturing withdrew from the joint venture in 1934. The company expanded to bed warmers, baby carriages, roller skates and industrial steel shelving. In 1939 Sunshine began manufacturing bombs, land mines, army truck doors, gun mounts, airplane parts and complete nose assemblies for the Mosquito fighter-bomber. The company operated around the clock and was Waterloo's largest employer during the war years.

After the war it returned to normal production and added office furniture in the 1940s and 1950s. Massey Ferguson Limited of Toronto acquired the company in the mid-1950s. The company then concentrated on steel office furniture, library shelving and school lockers and the name was changed to Sunshine Office Equipment Limited. In 1964 the company acquired Art Woodwork of Montreal and the name was changed to Sunar Limited a combination of the two company names. In 1978 Sunar was sold to E.F. Hauserman Inc. of Cleveland. In 1983 it became SunarHauserman Limited with the head office in Waterloo. The company closed in 1990.

Date of Original