History
"Ever since its inception in 1943, the path of Rainbow Plastics - once a prominent independent compression molding company - was characterized by its ups and downs, and ownership changes before it finally came to the end of the line in 1970.
The business dates back to late 1944 when L. W. Knell and John Dean bought Rainbow Plastic Products at Gatineau Point, Quebec, a small company that originated in 1943. Both partners had been together at DuPlate in Oshawa ... They changed the name to Rainbow Plastics Ltd. and were soon busy with war work. Dean was president, and Knell was general manager.
The end of the war brought some unexpected contract cancellations and the partners found themselves in financial trouble. At that time (1946), Percy Hermant, president of Imperial Optical Co. Ltd. bought a 50% interest in the company, and Cyril Fuller of Percy Hermant Ltd. became general manager. That same year, Rainbow purchased the molding equipment of Alanson Armature of Toronto.
Still another purchase was made early in 1949. In a profile on Bruce B. Kennedy, Rainbow’s sales manager, it was reported that the company acquired the plant of Lacrinoid Products of Canada Ltd. in nearby Buckingham, Quebec. The ill-fated Lacrinoid was started in 1945 by a U.K. company to make plastic hardware and housewares components but its products never caught on. After this purchase, Rainbow shut down its Gatineau Point plant and the personnel transferred to Buckingham.
In 1958, Rainbow decided to get out of the custom molding business and concentrate on the development of a good line of melamine dinnerware, and expand its electrical wiring device line.
In 1962 Rainbow Plastics was purchased by Cyanamid of Canada Ltd. and operated as its molding division; thus Cyanamid became a molder of melamine dinnerware, as well as a primary supplier of the raw material.
Early in 1970, members of the Goldhar family purchased the Buckingham plant from Cyanamid. They continue to produce dinnerware and operate as Buckingham Plastics Co."