VEF

For the Venezuelan bolívar fuerte, whose currency code is VEF, see Venezuelan bolívar.

Street view of VEF's oldest buildings.

VEF, Latvian acronym for Valsts Elektrotehniskā Fabrika (State Electrotechnical Factory), is a manufacturer of electrical and electronic products in Riga, Latvia. VEF was the biggest Latvian factory in Soviet era and the leading communication technology producer in the Soviet Union. VEF produced telephone exchanges, phones, radios, and other electronics.

History

The factory buildings were built during end of 19th and beginning of 20th century and span a city block. Before the World War I the buildings formerly belonged to a 1887-established factory UNION.

The company's roots began in April 1919 when Postal and Telegraph Department created several basement workshops. In 1922 phone manufacturing started there. In 1924 it started producing crystal-detector radios. That year the factory was moved for the first time, and in 1928 moved again to its VEF's current location. It was named PTVGD (Latvian: Pasta un telegrāfa virsvaldes galvenā darbnīca).

PTVGD began producing automatic telephone exchanges. They bought the license from Mix & Genest to produce small volume (for 100, 200, 300 numbers) and large volume (1000, 2000 numbers) switchboards. Phone centrals in Riga and Latvia's populated places were upgraded uning PTVGD's manufactured exchanges until 1940. The factory produced any demanded electronics, communication devices, phones, light bulbs, cameras, irons, radios, flashlights, photo paper, work-tables, and even sport airplanes. They also repaired cars. During the 1930s the monthly production of PTVGD included 500 phones and 400 exchanges.

The company was renamed to VEF in 1932. VEF entered the world market in 1936 with the development of the Minox miniature camera, designed by Walter Zapp (Latvian: Valters Caps). It was the world's smallest camera at the time and VEF's biggest achievement with which it became famous in the world.

Before World War II, VEF manufactured a wide range of products, including aircraft (such as the VEF I-16 fighter) and Minox miniature cameras.

Between 1928 and 1933 VEF also produced a small, inexpensive car.

During the World War II the factory was robbed and destroyed, several buildings were blown up. The factory was repaired after the war and it quickly re-developed. During 1960s VEF produced seven radios receivers and five phones every minute. During that time two out of three phones in Soviet Union were produced in VEF. Popularity gained transistor-based radios Spīdola and in 1970s — "VEF".

During the Soviet period, VEF specialized in electronics and was a part of Latvia's electronic industry which supplied the former Soviet Union with telecommunications equipment and electronics for the military. The five largest state companies were VEF, Radiotehnika, Alfa, Komutators and Elar (which produced components for the other four). In its peak in 1991, VEF employed 20,000 people. Its best known products were telephones, telephone exchanges and radios.

The Latvian electronics industry had trouble competing with Western companies when the markets were opened in the early 1990s. Cited problems included poor service and product quality. Attempts to restructure these firms were not successful and their combined production fell more than 90% between 1993 and 1997. VEF was divided into six smaller companies, most of which no longer exist. Three remaining ones, VEF KTR, VEF Telekom and VEF Radiotehnika-RRR employ between 100 and 200 people each.

In 1999 the factory was privatized and reorganized.

Gallery

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  A vintage VEF radio receiver and the company's full name in Russian

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  VEF-202 portable radio receiver, 1971

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  VEF-MIKRO 1024 personal computer in 1985

External links

• VEF official website
• VEF-Minox cameras
• VEF camera serial numbers
• VEF I-16 fighter aircraft
• History of VEF (Russian)