PURE
STORY SO FAR
Pure grew out of Imagination Technologies (then VideoLogic), a Hertfordshire chip designer that had built a DAB digital radio tuner chip in 2000 but couldn’t persuade the big radio makers to use it. To prove the chip worked, CEO Hossein Yassaie’s team designed a complete radio around it, and the Pure brand launched in October 2001 with the £499 DRX-601EX. The follow-up Evoke-1 in July 2002 was the first mass-market DAB radio under £100 and sold out within three hours of going on sale. Pure had around 30% of the UK digital radio market by value by the end of 2005, passed two million radios sold in 2008, and later released the Sensia touchscreen radio (2009) and the Jongo multiroom range (2012). In September 2016 Imagination sold the business to Austrian investment firm AVenture for just £2.6 million, and it was renamed Pure International. Since 2019 it has also made audio products under licence from Braun.
DESIGNED BY
Product ideas and development still come from Pure’s long-standing office in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, which the brand calls its headquarters near London. The parent company is Austrian, and recent products also list an address in Kundl, Austria. UK-based: Yes.
MADE BY
Per independent reviews and product origin labelling: Pure’s radios and speakers are manufactured in China, with only concept and design work done in the UK. No UK manufacturing and no parts-by-percentage breakdown published.
TO BUY
Further information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_(company)
Further research reading
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-consumer-electronics-hall-of-fame-pure-evoke1-dab-digital-radio
https://www.whathifi.com/news/pure-radio-business-sold-to-austrian-firm-ps26-million
Region Made
Kings Langley, Hertfordshire (design/HQ); manufactured in China
