Waterloo Public Library Digital Collections

Sunshine Waterloo Company Limited

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

Victory Loan Campaign Committee for Sunshine Waterloo company.
Standing left to right; Gene Packman; George MacGregor; Charles Weber; Alfred Ruston; John Sim.

Seated left to right; Kingsley Mank; J.C. Vanstone, Claude Hinschberger.

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 was forced to close its doors in 1990.

The Canadian Government sold Victory Bonds to Canadian citizens, private corporations and various organizations in order to raise funds to pay for the war. The bonds were a loan to the government that could be redeemed with interest after 5, 10, or 20 years. After World War II the campaign eventually led in 1946 to the government issuing Canada Savings Bonds in order to encourage Canadians to continue the savings habit that Victory Bonds had established.

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