Our history

Léo Labrèche registered for a two-year course in radio and television at l'Institut Teccart when he was 47 years of age in 1951. When he graduated, he came first of his class. That time was the beginning of television and the manufacturers were looking for good service men.

Léo Labrèche had to choose to work for Admiral or Addison which was a smaller company not quoted on stock exchange. He decided to work for Addison which was a company owned by the Jack Addison's family since 1930. Léo Labrèche became service manager of that company located on St. James Street in Montreal. He worked his way up at the head office in Toronto by his competence to find out production troubles and bring solutions to solve them.

Mr. Jack Addison died in 1961. Mrs. Addison asked the general manager to liquidate the company and search for someone to buy the electronic division and sell parts throughout Canada during the next five years according to the Canadian federal law. Léo Labrèche bought the company Addison for 15% of the cost. Addison T.V. Parts Ltd. was the new name he gave his company. Léo Labrèche was not short of helping hands as he had seven sons and three daughters. His oldest son, Gilles, became vice-president in 1961 and the other sons were directors of the company.

Gilles, who had been working for Canadian Marconi since 1951, joined Addison T.V. Parts Ltd. in 1965. Jean-Claude was already working for Addison when the company was bought. He was in charge of household appliances, washers and dryers and refrigerators from Norge company which was sold to Tappan-Gurney. Bernard and Yves took care of the customers and services for Addison's radios and televisions as well as other brands made by Addison as G.B.S. and Motorola.

To summarize, all the children of the family have been involved in the company.

Léo Labrèche was the promoter of a great innovation for the time. He started to sell electronic parts in a self serve store like a food supermarket. T.V. Parts Ltd. had a great deal of customers throughout Canada from Vancouver to Newfoundland. The sales were excellent due to very low prices and good quality offered. Addison bought surplus productions from Marconi, Admiral, Fleetwood, Sylvania, Zenith and R.C.A. Addison bought all the stocks of these companies when they closed theirs doors in Canada in 1965/1966.

The policy of Addison was to sell and buy on a cash basis. They did not want to borrow money from the banks and have credit margins in order to keep their hands free. This policy contributed to offer very good selling prices to their customers and have liquid assets to buy surplus goods and keep a gigantic inventory.

Gilles and Micheline started to visit electronic exhibitions once a year in 1981. They visited Taiwan, Korea, Hong-Kong and finally China in 1994 in order to import directly from the manufacturer's plants.

Bernard Labrèche became president in 1975 and took charge of buying surplus electronic materials throughout Canada and United States.

In September 2002, Addison was sold to Yves, Alain and Christian (his two sons) and Jean Lestage C.A. Today, Addison Electronique keeps progressing with new technologies in sight in order to continue to offer the greatest choice and best prices in America to his faithful customers.