Universal Phillumenists Exchange Club
U.P.E.C

The Universal Phillumenists Exchange Club or UPEC was I am led to believe the brainchild of  Victor Gladwish and his wife Monika.

It's remit was two fold.  The first was to import blank matchboxes from Europe - mainly West Germany, usually with Average 40 Contents per box - and then print customers own advertising labels which were affixed to the box.  The second was to produce a vast array of publications some of which were reasonably well put together and others which weren't.

The companies customer database was vast and extensive and covered all aspects of the wholesale and retail markets including numerous service industries.  In addition, in keeping with established match manufacturers, the company also produced various generic sets such as World War 2 Formation Badges and Famous British People.  A number of the generic issues were plaquerised from existing match manufacturers but were altered sufficiently so as not to breach copyright or design regulations.  UPEC operated directly in competition with The Cornish Match Company and Bouldens of Southampton.

When first starting out, the majority of labels were produced in single or dual colour on a smooth matt faced white paper with a semi-coarse back.  However, as Boulden's became more established and moved over to multicolour printing, so did UPEC.  Both companies flourished over a period of 6 to 10 years but ultimately the market became so strangulated due to ever increasing imports and a significant downturn in the match consumer market that in the end both companies ceased trading.

As matchboxes were made to be thrown away, it would appear that the company played on this point because the quality and finish for many of the labels was less than 100%.  Notwithstanding this, during the existence of UPEC, the company produced over 22,000 labels and of which many were repeat orders.

In the majority of cases, UPEC gave each label a reference number and, where labels were affixed to both the top and reverse, the reverse label was prefixed with the letter U.  Additionally, some sales representatives also had their initials placed after the label reference number.  Unlike Boulden's who produced the same label for a customer irrespective of the total matchboxes purchased, UPEC issued a new serial number for every new order and therefore the same customer could have two or more labels of the same design but with different serial numbers.  Additionally, if a customer ordered for example 5,000 matchboxes, each 1,000 boxes would be construed as a new order and therefore it was not unusual to see one company with 5 or more serial numbers running sequentially such as 5001, 5002, 5003, 5004, 5005, etc.  For the purpose of completeness, where more than one serial number applies, each is considered to be an issue in its own right.

Throughout this specialised area of the web site please remember that for many of the issues I only have one or two labels and they will definately not be replaced once they are gone.  Additionally, I consider the value of UPEC labels to be quite low and therefore the majority of labels offered for sale will be in mixed packs and not sold individually.

Should you be a committed collector of UPEC labels, and as such are seeking specific themes or issues, then please contact me via the "Contacts Page" and I will do what I can to help in this respect.

As always - Happy Hunting