John Bloom (born 1931), is an English entrepreneur, known for his success and failure at the Rolls Razor company in selling washing machines in the early 1960s.
A tailor's son, he was born to orthodox Jewish parents in London's East End. Bloom's father Sam was born in Poland, and his mother was of Sephardic background. He attended Hackney Downs School. After leaving school aged 16, he tried a number of schemes before enlisting in the Royal Air Force. Bloom was initially posted to No3 Radio School at RAF Compton Bassett near Calne, Wiltshire for his training as a signalman. The local coach company Cards of Devizes provided contracted coaches to the RAF, which on a Saturday afternoon would take the airmen to London on their 36 hour passes. Bloom decided with a friend who ran a coach company in Stoke Newington that they could undercut the Card/RAF's coaches. When Cards took Bloom to court, the judge upheld Bloom with a declaration that became Bloom's motto: "It's no sin to make a profit." Bloom was later posted to Bletchley Park and then managed to get a posting to Bush House in the Aldwych, on the grounds that his mother was unwell
After Bloom left the RAF, he started selling Dutch-made washing-machines door-to-door. As Bloom would order in an American style mass production to reduce costs, but hold payment until the machine was sold, many Dutch firms refused to manufacture for him. After making a deal with a plant in Utrecht, Bloom formed his own company which advertised the "Spartan" automatic washer-dryer for $144 - 40% below high street retailers prices.
In 1958 Bloom placed an advert in the Daily Mirror offering home washing-machine demonstrations. Generating 7,000 responses via posted coupon responses, Blooms' unorthodox marketing and low prices meant that within a short time period he had taken 10% of the market from Hoover and Hotpoint. Bloom's innovation was to sell the machines direct to the public via coupon advertising, at around half the cost of retailers, also sold largely through affordable hire purchase agreements.
By now selling 500 machines a week, Bloom calculated to cut overheads by manufacturing in Britain. Bloom cut a deal with the then moribund Rolls-razor company to make 25,000 twin-tub washing machines, and later merged the two companies, becoming Managing Director with a majority share of the companies stock. In early 1962, they bought the Colston company, and expanded into dishwashers, fridges, rental TV's and trading stamps - and latterly Bulgarian holidays. The company listed on the London Stock Exchange in mid-1962, at $3.50, with the price doubling in weeks. By the end of 1963, the marketed Rolls-Colston company was selling over 200,000 machines a year.
Blooms' business expanded rapidly, relying on the most aggressive marketing campaign of his time. The campaign made Bloom one of the most well known personalities in the country during the opening years of the 1960s - with Bloom positioning himself as a friend of the housewife, pal of the working man, scourge of the City and enemy of the Establishment. The listing of Rolls Razor made Bloom a millionaire, and along with his black Rolls Royce Phantom he married his blonde secretary and bought her a white Mercedes Benz. Bloom bought a Park Lane apartment, a French Riviera villa, and the 376-ton motor yacht Ariane for $1,000,000. Famous for his social connections, David Bowie credits Bloom as being central to his first record deal, when the then-unknown singer was invited to play at a party in Bloom's Park Lane flat, and subsequently introduced to an agent.
Bloom had a lover in 1962, 18 year old Christine Hughes who was the wife of Brighton's "Blue Gardenia Club" Harvey Holford. After Hughes returned from a tryst with Bloom, Holford shot Hughes five times and was found lying by her body. On 29 March 1963 Holford was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of provocation and diminished responsibility, and sentenced to three years imprisonment.
But the retailers and UK manufacturers were unhappy, and reduced their prices considerably to create the so-called Washing Machine War, between direct sales and retailers. Bloom was forced to increase his advertising costs just as sales began to fall, and was then hit by the 1964 postal strike which resulted in coupon returns drying up. Receipts from Rolls's customers hire-purchase agreements were under written by banker Sir Isaac Wolfson, who by mid-1964 had bankrolled Bloom with a $28 million loan. Spotting trouble, Sir Isaac withdrew his support and sped the downfall. With Bloom suspected of malpractice, the companies shares were suspended at $0.15 in mid-July 1964, before the company announced it would be placed into voluntary liquidation.
After the collapse there were many recriminations, but The Economist said at the time:
"If the British economy is not sufficiently competitive wrote Harold Wincott in the Financial Times, if established industry is too solidly wedded to price maintenance, we need more John Blooms not fewer of them" and in a provocative letter to The Times Ralph Harris Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs wrote " Mr. Bloom has already done more for economic growth in Britain than many of its verbal champions in NEDC and Elsewhere"
Since being made bankrupt in 1969 at the Old Bailey, little has been heard of Bloom since 1979. He remains married to his wife Ann, mother of two of his three children. He published his own book It's no sin to make a profit in 1971. In 1972 Bloom started a medieval restaurant in Los Angeles called 1520 A.D., which was expanded to hotel banqueting rooms in major cities. After the business ceased operations in 1978, Bloom moved to Majorca, Spain and opened a piano bar, later sold to his partners. He has remained active in a number of business ventures, dividing his time between Spain, the UK and the US.
