Great 'disguised Own Brand' Hunt.

rogerb

DCFC79 wrote: »

Maybe its been discussed but does anyone know who makes the Logik range of electrical items for the DSGI group
thanks

Increasingly, the retailer's own electronics brand products (Logik, Matsui, etc from DSGI, Tecknik at Tescos, etc) will be made specifically for the retailer and there may be no direct equivalent under another brand name. For example. Tesco's own brand digital radios (Tecknik) are made for them only: the external look&feel and some of the internal electronics will be designed by an intermediary company on behalf of Tescos to meet Tesco's price requirements. That company is based in Watford, and if you opened up their radio you'd find some of the electronics look very similar to radios sold under the Alba or Philips brand. But, don't assume this means a Tesco own brand radio is actually a Philips in disguise, even though 90% of the electronics may be the same. Tescos will lessen the cost putting a cheap loudspeaker or using a basic LCD display, whereas Philips might spend more on components, packaging and aesthetic design so that they can charge a premium price.
Some well known international brands are just badge names in the UK. Don't know if it's still so, but Hitachi electronics brand is/was used under licence by Dixons in the UK, designed and sourced by the same staff who source their Logik and Matsui products. The same was true of Grundig which in Germany (until the company went bust) meant Grundig-designed products on sale in Germany whereas the UK Grundig was simply a Dixon's licensed brand with completely different products made for Dixons and no equivalent in Germany.
On the othe hand, some of Robert's radios are made by a Chinese company called Sangean and you can buy the same radio in other countries under that name (and much cheaper too!). DVD players, digital cameras, MP3 and all sorts of electronic products are manufactured in this way - DSG, Tesco and other big retailers have own brands and/or well known international brand names to use under local licence. Products designed specifically for own-brands tend to be the cheaper stuff with costs stripped to allow the supermarket to sell it at a low price. This would be the "loss leader", looking a bit awful deliberately to entice you to buy the well known (and more profitable) branded product, eve if this isn't what you think it is! Apparently independent brands may no more than re-badged or re-skinned versions of worldwide products.

Thankfully, there are some brands still true to their names and values, still doing their own design, control of manufacture, after-sales and servicing. They tend not to make products for other people but may offer their chassis or electronics to be reskinned.

Sorry, long winded answer.

Rog

Mary_Hartnell

rogerb wrote: »

Thankfully, there are some brands still true to their names and values, still doing their own design, control of manufacture, after-sales and servicing. They tend not to make products for other people but may offer their chassis or electronics to be reskinned.

Rog

Can you give us a list?

stavros_2

geordie_joe wrote: »

The above phrase is complete b*llocks.

There is no such thing as "one of the only manufacturers"

You can be "the only manufacturer"

You can be "one of only two manufacturers"

You can be "one of the few manufacturers"

You can not be "one of the only manufacturers"

Apart from that, posting proof of what a company is going to do in the future is not proof of what they are doing now.

Just because a company announces plans to build a factory to make it's goods, doesn't mean it is currently making it's goods. It could be outsourcing them now, but think building it's own factory will work out cheaper in the long run.

Calm down, dear. It's only a ... forum.

It is amusing to moan about someone's use of English and then misuse an apostrophe 453 times in two sentences though. Or was that irony?

DCFC79

BRENTUS wrote: »

garyclay wrote: »

Electrolux: own well over 50 brand names (though not all of them washing machines) Among the more well known ones are AEG, Tricity Bendix, Zanussi.

GDA: manufacture Hotpoint, Creda, Cannon and GE, English Electric,

Candy: own Hoover, Zerowatt and Kelvinator among others.

Merloni: own Ariston, Indesit, New World, Philco, and have just bought a large interest in GDA (who make Hotpoint and Creda)."

So next time I'll be going for the cheap option!!!


If anybody out there is an appliance repair man, or married to one, do you know which models are the same under the different badges?

Hope you find this useful.[Merloni they may own whirlpool]

what about bosch and neff then

Torkijo

geordie_joe wrote: »

The above phrase is complete b*llocks.

There is no such thing as "one of the only manufacturers"

You can be "the only manufacturer"

You can be "one of only two manufacturers"

You can be "one of the few manufacturers"

You can not be "one of the only manufacturers"

Apart from that, posting proof of what a company is going to do in the future is not proof of what they are doing now.

Just because a company announces plans to build a factory to make it's goods, doesn't mean it is currently making it's goods. It could be outsourcing them now, but think building it's own factory will work out cheaper in the long run.

A) why swear

Language is an evolving form of communication, the important thing is the message and most of us understood what the poster meant.

C) A Language that does not evolve will die as it stagnates and people stop using it so it becomes a political lobbying tool (See whats happening in Scotland) or a Hobby(Cornish).

kneedevil

I currently work for Premier Foods who own a number of top name brands such as Mr Kipling, Sharwoods, Bachelors, Branston and Hovis to name a few. I manage one of the Hovis sites and make their bread daily.

Along with Hovis lines we also make M&S White, Wholemeal, Sandwich White, Sandwich Brown and 2 in 1. I can vouch that these are made to a different although similiar recipe to their Hovis equivalents. M&S also have their own premium flour that is only to be used on their Soft White loaf and is in theory supposed to be of a higher quality than the white flour that goes into the Hovis lines. I'm fairly certain this flour is exactly the same however but have no real proof. I can also honestly say that M&S are very big on quality.

I also make own label products for Tesco, Asda, Somerfield etc. All own label white breads are made with a poor quality flour. Tesco white has a different recipe to the other own label whites but there is absolutely no difference whatsoever between the Tesco value white and the standard, more expensive, version. The only difference being the packaging. All other own label products are made out of the same white/wholemeal recipe but again just has different packaging. This is also true for any cheaper labels from the same company such as ASDA Smart Price is the same as the standard ASDA loaf etc.

Ultimately if you're buying the own brand stuff you may as well buy the value version. However, if you want a decent loaf of bread you need to go for the branded product such as Hovis or, without wanting to promote the competition, Warburtons. Id avoid Kingsmill as their bread is usually towards the bottom of any taste panels and benchmarking exercises.

Red_Cat

BRENTUS wrote: »

garyclay wrote: »

I recently had a repair man to my AEG dishwasher. "I've got the same model at home" he told me "But mine's Zannussi"

After a little confussion on my part he explained that there are very few individual manufacturers left. The badge is just a front. My AEG is exactly the same as his Zanussi but the external fascia is altered so that they look different so the consumer doesn't realise.

After a little research I found the following on the web

"Many appliances are no longer made by the companies shown on the logo. Successful brand name companies go bust or are taken over by bigger companies but they usually keep the "old" name for various tactical marketing reasons. In a way, it shouldn't matter who makes which brand, but a couple of concerns should be considered.

Firstly, if a customer is very unhappy with a product, or the service provided by a manufacturer, they are likely to avoid purchasing from that company again. They may well end up purchasing virtually the exact same machine with a different logo complete with the same company service engineers as well as the same company ethos.

Secondly, there are sometimes differences between brands made by the same company - even when the machines are virtually the same. An example of this is with Creda and Hotpoint, both of which are now made by the same company. Hotpoint machines have a free five year parts guarantee but Creda machines don't. There is little difference between the two makes inside, but they are priced differently too. A similar thing occurs with Hoover and Candy who are both owned by Candy. Hoover have a free 5-year parts guarantee, but Candy's don't.

Eventually, all washing machines are likely to be made by just a handful of companies and in fact we aren't that far off from this scenario already. Note that some brands retain all their original differences but are just owned by a rival company and some are virtually the same machine inside with different logos and trimmings. Here is a sample of some of the household names who are owned or made by the same company.

Electrolux: own well over 50 brand names (though not all of them washing machines) Among the more well known ones are AEG, Tricity Bendix, Zanussi.

GDA: manufacture Hotpoint, Creda, Cannon and GE, English Electric,

Candy: own Hoover, Zerowatt and Kelvinator among others.

Merloni: own Ariston, Indesit, New World, Philco, and have just bought a large interest in GDA (who make Hotpoint and Creda)."

So next time I'll be going for the cheap option!!!


If anybody out there is an appliance repair man, or married to one, do you know which models are the same under the different badges?

Hope you find this useful.[Merloni they may own whirlpool]

Merloni bought GDA at least three years ago, I know my wife worked there at that point. So they also own, Hotpoint, Creda etc.

oldsam

If you bringing home the bacon from a supermarket they may be all packed by the same firm , There is a bacon packing factory in Malton, Yorkshire which carried the job, Most of the products for the only difference was price - Skinless Sausages 75p for Asda- Morrison's charged 99p , Well that's we found in the box when their staff put the wrong labels on the product .

Esoog

Is there any chance of getting a list collected here? In the first post or something, its a bit hard to keep track at the moment.

Eenymeeny

Loving this thread and learning a lot.(Knowledge is power:D) Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to post.
I haven't read all of it so forgive me if it's already been said but I used to sell packaging to Industry so know that companies fight for this business on a short term basis. They might get a 12 month contract or even a six month one or, for instance, just the cheese and onion crisps , not all of the crisps for that company.
Sorry to cloud the issue but please be aware that it isn't definite that the company named still makes the product named. (I know that Martin stated to take the information as mere advice but hoped that this might help)
By all means let's try the products and see what we think. I'm certainly going to:D
Thanks again everyone:)