HISTORY

Finlux is a brand name used by Turkish manufacturer Vestel for a line of consumer electronic related products, including flat screen LED TVs. Over the years, the brand has been owned by several international companies.

  • 1964

    The name Finlux first appeared in 1964, when Iskumetalli began marketing TV sets with that brand name after being acquired by the Finnish Lohja conglomerate. Iskumetalli was founded in 1949 and had been manufacturing TV sets since 1958.

  • 1971

    Iskumetalli was renamed Finlux; this was the first time that Finlux had been used as a company name.

  • 1977

    The name Finlux first appeared in 1964, when Iskumetalli began marketing TV sets with that brand name after being acquired by the Finnish Lohja conglomerate. Iskumetalli was founded in 1949 and had been manufacturing TV sets since 1958.

  • 1979

    Lohja acquired another Finnish TV manufacturer, Asa Radio, which had been manufacturing radio receivers since 1927.

  • 1990

    The brand has been owned by electronics giant Nokia.

  • 1991

    The EL manufacturing was sold to Planar. A new company, Planar International was formed to continue manufacturing EL displays in Espoo, Finland. Planar later consolidated all of its EL manufacturing in Espoo and closed its Oregon EL facility.

  • 1992

    Finlux TV manufacturing was sold to Nokia, which already was manufacturing TV sets with brands Salora, Schaub-Lorenz and Oceanic.

  • 1996

    Nokia sold all its TV factories and brand names to Hong Kong company Semi-Tech, which continued manufacturing TV sets in one factory in Finland until the year 2000, when the Finnish subsidiary of Semi-Tech filed for bankruptcy.

  • 2005

    A new company under the old Finlux name, owned by Norwegian company Otrum Electronics, was formed to continue TV manufacturing. However, they had serious troubles with their product line, which was based on CRT TVs. The market had swung to flat panel TVs and Finlux failed to switch in time. With 50 million euros in debt, the company filed for bankruptcy in September 2005.

  • 2006

    Finlux is owned by Europe’s largest TV manufacturer, the Turkish electronics manufacturer Vestel, owned by the Zorlu Holding corporate group.