SWTPC Advert - August 1978

It's another entry in that curious sideline of the early microcomputer industry: computers as furniture.

On offer is Southwest Technical Products' System B - a CT-64 terminal, dual 1.2MB 8" floppy disk drives, and probably the company's standard 6800 microcomputer, all supplied in an actual desk with a plastic laminated top.

The system retailed for $4,495 - that's about £20,900 in 2024 terms.

By the time of this advert, SWTPC's supplier in the UK - Computer Workshop - had moved from its original Fulham office to much fancier offices near Mayfair in London.

It was turning over £75,000 a month and had become the biggest SWTPC customer in the entire country, and so earlier in 1978 entered discussions with SWTPC in the US about setting up a UK factory in order to beat freight costs and various import tarrifs.

An advert showing SWTPC's UK factory in Peterborough. From Practical Computing, November 1978

SWTPC boards being assembled in the Peterborough factory. From Practical Computing, October 1978.The end result was a factory in Peterborough, which was 50% financed by SWTP of the US, effectively taking over Computer Workshop Ltd, which was already the de-facto retailing front-end of the US company in the UK. It was the first manufacturing facility to be set up in the UK by a US manufacturer.

The business kept the faith with SWTPC, with manager John Burnett saying:

"We decided that to support a large number of different systems would weaken our support capability and we would never get to grips with every system. We felt it was the right decision to concentrate on SWTPC because it was the lowest-cost manufacturer in the equipment area and one of the largest^[1]".