Stofor

Stofor was the only message switching system of its size to boast a custom text editor designed by Fenwood with the needs of the telex user in mind.

Its main workload was in the sending and receiving of telex messages but it was also put to work in a wide range of other communications areas including fax.

Digital Equipment Corporation used one as the centre of its European message distribution network in Reading and others were in use by a number of household names in the food, chemical and engineering industries.

[1] When Stofor was born, Fenwood employed about six staff but this grew rapidly until there were forty eight, covering all aspects such design, procurement, production, software writing, sales and customer support.

Sadly, with the rapid growth of fax and then the advent of email, demand for message switching systems such as Stofor died away and Fenwood moved into other markets, finally being wound up in the late 1990s.