OT:Goodmans

[dennis]

He can't even get that right, they are owned by an EU company.

They got bought cheap when the exchange rate dropped.

Why does he think their latest cars all look like Peugeots?

[charles]

Like Austin & Morris under BL?

>

[Bob Eager]

You forgot Vanden Plas (with MG and Riley and Wolseley somewhere in between).

[alan_m]

Often "the company" only now exist as a brand name that is used to badge products from other sources. Some people assume that a product badged with Brand X has the same quality as the product they purchased 20 years ago and is still working. In reality the original company with that brand possibly went bust many years ago and the most value asset, the brand name, is now owned by a holding company and used to brand goods purchased from a variety of worldwide sources.

[Brian Gaff]

So when DVDs first came out you could buy a Wharf DVD player. Most of these brand names were bought by foreign companies to use on their products since English people found oriental names hard to remember or say. You only have to note the Chinese on which most people write as Who are we? Which was either a happy accident or brilliant marketing but with the scandal of the chief finance officer being arrested in Canada and all the fake news about the Chinese government building in software snooping tools who knows. Brian

[charles]

True, but the two I mentioned were pretty nearly identical, the others tended to have more bells & whistles

[Brian Gaff]

There are actually still two Goodmans companies. The speaker company is still speakers but no longer of the high end sort, mainly supplying stuff made abroad. then the electronics side bought and sold so many times I've given up trying to work out who owns them now. They specialise in budget appliances in the main. I think Decca still belong to the Korean company Tatung. The folk who in the 80s had moderate success selling the Einstein computer. I met a few of their people and they seemed pretty good. they had of course been making Deca portable radios for years. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes well, Polaroid never really kept with the program over digital and neither did Kodak etc. I wonder how far we can push badge engineering? Recently Philips though badge engineering their stuff for a while have begun designing their own tvs again but they are still going to be made abroad since its cheap... sigh.

I was just wondering when we will start getting food mixers called Bentley, or cars named Fidelity. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Well curries PCWorld/dixons are basically and always have been box shifters. Yes their service is quite good or so I've found, but that is all they actually are. The names have little or no association with their roots any more than Block and Quail have with B and Q today.

I remember Amstrad, they made a dinky little cassette deck with dolby when that was first out. People said it sounded remarkably good, indeed it did but the case and meters etc were cheapo and yet the actual mechanical guts when I had to take one apart to fit a new clutch was labelled Nakamichi, who although famous for high end take decks made most of their living by making off the shelf decks to sell to the likes of Amstrad, Bell and Howell and the early Sansuis. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

No they flogged the electronic bit many years ago. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes Harvard have been around for years, they cut their digital teeth on digital clocks and clock radios. Originally only sold mail order. Most of them seemed to have the usa spellings in their instructions so I guess that was their main market. There was some long ago tie up when the audiotronic group broke up. That was the group who bought out Fred Laskys shops and he retired on a large sum of money abroad. I remember Fred Lasky he started in Soho flogging of government surplus radios cheap. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes there are a lot of them who are partly or wholly owned by big companies simply to use as brand engineering. I mean for many years Marantz was Philips I believe its Denon now, and there is a huge list. Recently saw Hacker, an unfortunate name in today's world, name on a very tatty looking dab set. Roberts still have a uk wing, but seem to make their stuff all over the world and the cheaper end is just bought in with their name on it. Dynatron Sobell Murphy Bush even Quad is now Chinese. The point is a good one I think that if you have a very odd company name in a market you buy up a name that sounds better and people know. Amstrad used Schneider I believe in many markets. Tandberg now only make video conferencing stuff, and I'm very surprised nobody has the rights to sell consumer goods badged like that. Memorex used to sell Hi Fii Separates through Tandy and they were all made by Philips with Memorex on them. Many of tandys old ranges like their very good cassette decks, very underrated in my view used modules from Hitachi and also Sansui at the time. The world has basically gone bonkers. Now where is that Black and Decker toaster? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Or Woolsey and humber etc also under bl at the time for minis with slightly redesigned bonnets. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes well I blame Schel Silverstien and Johnny Cash for their debt. One Piece at a time. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Anyone remember Jowett? I had a book of pictures all very corporate and now for the mext so many years it said, I think it took five years and they went skint. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Well the Japanese tend to do that. Recently in the news was the Toshiba/ USA link up for nuclear reactors that seems to have made less than the desired dosh. Mitsubishi make rockets now and all sorts of heavy engineering while in name anyway still sell cars and stereo systems. Its all a big mess.

Hitachi as well have dabbled in Nuclear. Many many years ago when they made tvs and hi fi they were predicting we might all soon have our own little portable nuclear energy units, a bit like the other pie in the sky predictions has never come to much. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes as anyone who buys most low priced Sony items will know, most are same old junk as everyone else sells. Time was Sony radios lasted for ever but of course lasting for ever is hardly the way to sell more. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes Alba Toaster also made in Turkey apparently. sigh, saw it in Argos or rather on their web site about 6 months ago, they also sold Alba ccd portables as well.

I see binatone is also back they were cheap and cheerful to start with but the name must seel or they would not be using it I suppose. I see an increasing number of radios being sold off el cheapo called Ministry of Sound which used to be a big dance and disco club chain as I recall, so totally a badge engineering job whty never ever made anything. What next?

After all Boots used to brand their stuff boots. Seems everyone wants to use somebody elses names for own brand these days. Hang on I'll just get my 500 quid CD degouser from Fidelity. ha ha, Brian

[Bill]

In message <q9p4ic$oes$ [e-mail], Brian Gaff [e-mail]> writes

Ah yes, the Bradford van. My deaf uncle drove one of them. We were always warned never to accept a lift from him (because of his driving, nothing more untoward!).

[charles]