Wilhelm Denninghoff W.D.

Wilhelm Denninghoff and the W.D marking

When Göte Borgström had managed to sell the first spinning reels to Paul Berghaus & Co under the PEBECO brand, the next customer in line was Wilhelm Denninghoff. Denninghoff had a purchasing manager named Torsten Persson, whom Borgström met in a hotel room in Gothenburg.

Persson asked how many reels AB Urfabriken could deliver. Borgström replied that the factory could manage 15,000 reels the first year and 25,000 reels over the following two years.

Persson suggested that Wilhelm Denninghoff would buy 10,000 reels the first year and 15,000 reels over the following two years. The condition was that Denninghoff would have exclusive rights to the reels. Since AB Urfabriken needed this order to survive, Borgström agreed to the deal.

However, the factory was allowed to sell a very small edition without the W.D countermark. That is why some of the very earliest reels can be found without the W.D stamp.

The contract and the marking

During the autumn of 1940, the first reels were delivered to Wilhelm Denninghoff. Both companies ran large advertising campaigns in the spring of 1941. The reels were marked with W.D — Wilhelm Denninghoff — to show that they belonged to his exclusive range.

The W.D marking is therefore an important detail for collectors. Reels with the W.D stamp belonged to Wilhelm Denninghoff's exclusive sales channel, while reels without the mark or with other countermarks were sold through other channels.

The contract expires in 1943

In 1943, the contract with Wilhelm Denninghoff expired. That same year, the MADE IN SWEDEN marking was moved from the crank side to the foot of the reel. The letter A was printed on the reels and a new, lighter spool was fitted.

Coloured agate stones were used on the reels. Record 1500 and 1550 received cheaper agate stones, while Record 2000 received genuine ruby. These changes mark the end of the Wilhelm Denninghoff era and the beginning of AB Urfabriken's own, more direct marketing of Record reels.