A HISTORY OF PALITOYAre you sitting comfortably then ill begin In 1919 Alfred Pallet-Cascelloid Ltd in Britannia street in Leicester started of making small items out of plastic, it previously was a lodging house and cost ?4.000 and had to be deloused before the presses could be installed Alfred started his career selling type writers for Branson?s and failed his accountancy exams decided to go solo with no money and at the tender age of 18 gave his name to the toy division in his first year his sales were ?90 and found himself pawning all his belongings to pay the electric bill of ?28
In 1919 the first big order came in from Woolworth?s for 1.240 soapboxes
In 1920 carte blanche ordered windmills for Woolworth?s business began to boom with the factory working 6am-10pm turning out 2.500 items a week in the winter they branched out into baby rattles in pastel colours and soon manufactured bag handles mirrors egg timers calendars and hair slides workers were paid 6d a hour and gained the reputation of the place to work.
The first doll was made in1925 Mabul Lucy attwell diddums doll and stayed in production for 20 years by 1927 there was60 workers and annual turnover of ?10.000
But in 1927 the factory was destroyed by fire so they moved to Cobden Street with 250 workers and a showroom in London was opened in 1928 the king and queen placed orders in 1930products could be found in Woolworth?s m&s boots McFarlane Lang &co rowntree ltd Courtland?s and Huntley palmer
In1931 the company became a subsidiary of British Xylonite co
In 1932 they moved again to abbey lane in Leicester
1935 THE PALITOY TRADEMARK WAS REGISTERED THIS HAD BEEN DELAYED DUE TO A REMOTE VILLAGE IN INDIA CALLED PALI!!!!
In 1937 coalville aquired a cum dancing hall and in 1938 bought adjoining land of 31.2 acres and another factory was bought in Stamford making a total of 3
1938-1944 Pallet was vice president and chairman of the british toy manufacturers assoc in 1943 retired and became a director of leicester city for 40 years and died in 1983 aged 82
during the war the factory made anti gas eye shields bomb noses paper containers to drop supplies and parachutes after the war the company began making games toys dolls
Coalville factory in 1950 produced all clothing for dolls plastic moulded toys like aeroplanes prams mechanical toys whistles in 1952 the slogan used was GIRLS AND BOYS LOVE PALITOYS
In 1963 the toy division at Coalville was separated from the rest of the Cascelloid Company during the 60s the company made parts for heating and air con on Rolls Royce cars
1968 BXL SOLD Palitoy division to General Mills Inc of the USA and became part of the group containing Kenner & Parker Brothers General Mills was big in food products but often diversed
The Ashby distribution centre opened in 1975 @ a cost of ?1.7million by 1979 was handling 3/4m cartons of toys with60 thousand for export
1977 new buildings at Coalville in 1978 the whole production services were housed under one roof at Baker street housed customer services also production and dispatch of Mainline Railways , employers shop and sample dept dolls hospital and the Action man star scheme a ? m items annually in the qaction man scheme alone
1978 the Palitoy showroom was open at dinners and 5pm for employees to view the whole range the company employed around 1000 and in November the sales topped ?20m
1st jan 1980 the group Palitoy Denys Fisher &Chad Valley ceased to trade under the General Mills banner and became two divisions Palitoy & Chad Valley
31/10/80 third of workforce was made redundant 90 more in april following year 2/7/82 another 49
1983 Palitoy had 15% of british toy market and won top toy company shield and toy of the year for star wars on 23/6/83 a explosion at the owen st site the paint store 5 firefighters and 2 workers were hurt 600 workers evacuated
4/3/83 Palitoy sent 200 Airfix kits on HMS Exeter to the Falklands for a competition Peter Waterman chairman interviewed for BBC Newsnight by David Tindall ( a gold mine on top of a coal mine)
In 1986 Palitoys European businesses Mainline Airfix and Action Man collapsed as a direct result of a reorganisation of the business by General Mills Inc They decided to abandon all European product development instead subsidery companies would be offered a shopping list of US designed products to repackage for sale in Europe At Coalville the entire design department and the Mainline Sites were closed and the Airfix archive destroyed
The Coalville factory closed despite the success of Trivia Pursuit because of a policy subcontracting which allows more flexability i.e a factory that makes board games carnt make action figures when the factory closed in 94 it was owned by Hasbro
SO THAT?S PALITOY THE RISE AND FALL ID LIKE TO THANK FIONA URE THE ASSISTANT KEEPER LEICESTER HERITAGE SERVICES FOR ALL THE INFO
Action Force STILL Needs You! 
