About Us
Orvac Electronics is a family owned electronics distributor located in Southern California. Orvac has been providing our customers with great service and quality products since the late 1950's. Our customer base is large and includes industrial customers, governmental facilities, hospitals, educational, and commercial markets as well as home users and electronics hobbyists. We stock a wide variety of products including electronic components, relay's & switches, data & networking products, video security, structured cabling, commercial sound equipment, wire & cable, audio & video accessories and test equipment. We are very proud to have a large selection of products and a dedicated team of knowledgeable sales professionals to service our customer's needs.
Our primary location is in Fullerton, CA and we've recently opened a new store in Pasadena, California.
Orvac Electronics stocks over 100 different product lines and buys through 200+ Vendors. We provide same day shipping of our stock items and can source through our EDGE buying group of over 150 additional locations to find the items you are looking for.
History
1958 – The Beginning
Orvac Electronics was started in the summer of 1958 by Lino “Leo” Vaccher (1929-2005). Lino found it was easier to use his nickname Leo for everyone to easily pronounce and remember. From then on, Lino became known as “Leo”. After returning from the Korean War, Leo was involved in a variety of different jobs from piloting boats up at Lake Arrowhead, to working at a gas station, to installing antennas for people so they could watch television. Leo saw this new technology called television as something that was going to be very popular in the future. In the mid 1950′s, the television market was growing rapidly and Leo saw a great opportunity to be involved in this new market. Prior to opening Orvac, Leo worked for various Electronic Dealers which included Fullerton Electronics. In the summer of 1958, after returning from a fishing trip, Leo had the unfortunate experience of learning exactly what it meant to be a minority owner in a company. The small business that he was a partner in was sold while he was off fishing. In August of 1958, Leo started Orvac Electronics. Orvac’s name came from “Or” representing the first two letters in Orange County and “vac” for the first three letters in Leos last name “Vaccher.”
1960′s – Open to the Public
Orvac started out selling television antennas and tubes. The electronics market in the 1950′s and 1960′s was primarily geared toward T.V. dealers. Initially, Orvac remained closed to the public and sold exclusively only to television dealers. The television market was booming and everyone either wanted a new television or needed one repaired. Orvac’s initial success was due to the abundance of television tubes and antennas that were sold. Television tubes needed replacing every year or so depending on usage. There was a great demand for the consumable tubes.
Orvac continued to grow but it wasn’t until it went open door, that is Orvac sold to the general public that business started to really prosper. Opening to a larger market, anyone could buy the parts to repair their TV’s or radios and put up there own TV antennas. By the late 1960′s and early 1970′s the electronics market was changing rapidly. Orvac was now selling semiconductors, belts for record players and eight tracks, bulbs, tools, test equipment and a wide variety of other items. Orvac got into the consumer markets by selling Televisions, radios, turntables, CB radios and home speakers.
1970′s -The Fullerton Store
Leo purchased a 20,000 sq ft building in 1972 were Orvac still resides. This gave Orvac plenty of room for expansion. From the mid 70′s to the mid 80′s Orvac continued to grow and rapidly fill its current facility. The electronics industry was and still is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. Orvac continued to adapt to what the customers wanted and needed. Business was shifting from the old TV tubes and antennas to more semiconductors, memory chips, test equipment, speakers, 2-way radios, antennas, and a wide variety of other electronic items.
1980′s – The Next Generation
By the early 1980′s, Orvac had dropped most of the consumer items like Televisions and stereos and concentrated on the electronic parts, test equipment, and commercial sound markets. The late 80′s saw growth in the 12V or aftermarket automobile electronics market. Orvac still kept to its then core business which was the repair and the replacement markets. Orvac did maintain its diversity with many other products like test equipment, chemicals, relays, soldering equipment, the new fast growing computer parts market, prototyping products, hand tools, audio & video cables and wire.
In the summer of 1986 both of Leo’s sons had started to work full time in the business. Lino better known as “LJ” & Gino Vaccher trained under the then current management and had learned a great deal from the many years of experience that the Orvac employees had acquired over the years. LJ still remains as Orvac’s current President and Gino is pursuing other interests but is sometimes brought back in to work on specific projects.
1990′s – New Growth
The 90′s were booming with the computer markets out pacing most industries in the United States. Almost everyone needed cables and accessories to hook up and network their computers. Orvac has always maintained its diversity in the electronics industry. While always trying to focus on up and coming markets Orvac still caters to the industrial, commercial, educational, home do it yourselfer, government, and home theater customers. The computer and networking marketing started surging and there was much growth in this and related markets. Commercial sound was growing as new businesses opened or remodeled and were in the need of paging and background music. Semiconductors and relays were growing due to the demand for replacement parts and industrial growth. Wire was used everywhere from the industrial markets to data networking and home theater and home automation markets.
2000′s – The turn of the century
In the last 40+ years there had been so many changes in the electronics market that it would be hardly recognizable from that first summer of 1958. The 21st Century has come fast and furious with many changes. The one thing about the electronics market is that it moves very rapidly.� Along with focusing on supplying the products to meet customer needs, we have celebrate our 50th anniversary as a company and expect a great push into the next decade of our existence.� We find ourselves stocking more products on the shelves and in our warehouse. In fact we have added another 10,000 sq ft. warehouse, which is actually very full, so we can buy the good deals and pass them on to our customers.
2010 – The New Orvac
In 2010 Orvac expanded into the Los Angeles market and opened a new store in Pasadena.� Orvac still remains a local store where customers can come in and find the items they are looking for at great prices. The organization is going through necessary changes to continue to offer the variety, knowledge and value that our customers deserve while remaining a leader in the electronics industry.