Great 'disguised Own Brand' Hunt.

Doc_N

Rainy-Days wrote: »

Just to add my tuppence worth and this is correct information as of todays date.

Alba, Goodmans, JVC, Grundig are under one roof.

A._Badger wrote: »

Are you absolutely certain about JVC? JVC is a large, Japanese owned corporation (the Victor Co. of Japan) and I suspect they might be nothing to do with the other brands you've mentioned.

If you've evidence to the contrary it would be very useful to see it.

You're right, of course - JVC has nothing to do with Alba, Goodmans or Grundig.

Grundig is a brand now owned by the Turkish Arçelik group, which also owns the Beko, Blomberg, Grundig, Flavel and Leisure brands in the UK.

Goodmans is still owned by Harvard International (originally known as Alba).

patman99

Don't talk to me about Acerlik products. My Leisure cooker hinges broke, and it to British Gas (with whom I had a break-down cover) 3 months to obtain the parts as Acerlik only send them if there is space in the next container, and they do not hold parts anywhere outside the plant.

BG got the right hump with them in the end, especcially as they sent two top hinges. In the end, BG wrote-off the cooker (cost £499, and lasted 14 months). We replaced it with a cheaper New World. 4 years on, and still working perfectly.

frankiemuniz01

So, recently I decided that instead of buying a packet of Penguin biscuits, I'd get Sainsbury's own brand version - the 'Mint Polar' buscuit.

DCFC79

frankiemuniz01 wrote: »

So, recently I decided that instead of buying a packet of Penguin biscuits, I'd get Sainsbury's own brand version - the 'Mint Polar' buscuit.

yes, and,

sorry but is there a point to your post,

the polar biscuits have been around for ages and i thought they were a good alternative to penguin

seductivesmile

window_cleaner wrote: »

I was reading the first page of this thread when i realised that there were 90-odd pages, so I have skipped to here!

Anyway, i remeber about 15 years ago I was obessed with a chicken Kiev product made by a company in Hereford called Sun Valley. At the time they made the most succulent chicken Kievs INTHE WORLD! IMO, of course.

Seriously guys - they were full of lovely garlicky butter oozing out onto my new potatoes and peas - heaven! Then something went wrong...

Sainsburys didn't stock the Sun Valley ones anymore.:exclamati

But they had a 'own brand' version, and, OMG, it was nothing as good as the SV one. It was all dry inside. And not just one of them. They were all nasty versions of the original.

I used to go to Hereford quite a lot in those days, I was HGV driver, and was shocked to hear that there had been a big fire at the SV factory, which had killed many thousands of birds and I think ruined the company. It was very sad.

But I never saw a decent chicken Kiv in the shops ever since, and I often wondered if Sainsburys got SV to make the Kiev's for them and forgoes the SV branding and make it cheap. Well, they were cheap, but they were also nasty.

I haven't had a succulent chicken Kiev ever since the late 1980s. And I don't trust own brands anymore, and taken a lot of convincing.

Sorry for the rant. It's been playing on my mind for a long time.

Happi wrote: »

Anyway, i remeber about 15 years ago I was obessed with a chicken Kiev product made by a company in Hereford called Sun Valley. At the time they made the most succulent chicken Kievs INTHE WORLD! IMO, of course.

Seriously guys - they were full of lovely garlicky butter oozing out onto my new potatoes and peas - heaven! Then something went wrong...

OMG :eek: you brought back such lovely memories, i too was addicted to them, had to limit to friday night treat while watching prisoner cell block h lol .

I too have tried all the others and nothing comes close, don;t bother with birds eye they are disgusting. I started to make my own but kievs are not the easiest thing to make.

Just to say - the SV factory was taken over by CARGILL in 2009 - so they may make some somewhere?
HTH

SS

charlieheard

missbargain wrote: »

I am not sure what is the exact point of this thread, apart from the curiosity value. The supermarket products have to be made somewhere and who else to make them but someone with the capacity of already established company.

I know for the fact through a friend of mine, that even though the "upmarket" companies do make some supermarket own ranges, they don't use the same quality and quantity of ingredients for them. It would be totally counterproductive for them to do so as they would work against themselves. So they use the lesser quality or fewer ingredients, but sell them cheaper. Ever bought a can of own brand beans that were mostly water and all mushy and small? Toilet paper that tears before even used? etc, etc.
Ocassionally, it happens that the own brand product is just fine, but it does not mean that the quality is exactly the same. Perhaps the quality of so called "extra special" or "taste the difference" ranges is close to the branded one, but in no way is the cheapest, unbranded item the same quality of the branded stuff, otherwise, the brand companies would go bust. Of course, unbranded item is usually much cheaper, so the price corresponds to the quality.
Of course, often these branded products are overpriced, but, through trial and error, I still haven't found many own brand products that are better than branded ones, with the notable exception of Marks&Spencer's own food (but that's a bit different) and some "extra special" ranges which are close in price to branded products anyway.

You're missing the point of own-brand items. Of course some (?lots) are made down to a lower quality by the original brands. However, a huge part of a brand's cost goes in advertising - did you know that 25% of the cost of any Kelloggs cereal goes in advertising (maybe a bad example, as they don't "do" own brand, but you can see where this is going). This means that a well-known brand can make stuff and sell it cheaper to supermarkets for own brand sales and still make a profit...

So a brand has lots invested in its name, advertises to keep its name known and then passes that expense onto the customer. A supermarket may well sell own brands as loss leaders to get customers through the doors. Hence the price difference...

Mary_Hartnell

Often it is the number two or number three in the pecking order who is prepared to supply the "own label" market, such as HP for baked beans rather than Heinz.

Mary_Hartnell

Doc_N wrote: »

You're right, of course - JVC has nothing to do with Alba, Goodmans or Grundig.

Grundig is a brand now owned by the Turkish Arçelik group, which also owns the Beko, Blomberg, Grundig, Flavel and Leisure brands in the UK.

Goodmans is still owned by Harvard International (originally known as Alba).

Alba got started in Hong Kong in the days when the immigrants were thankful to sleep under their work benches.

Beware of brand names, I've been caught by cheap tat engineered by the addition of a bought historical brand name to disguise its real origins.

Marshmallow106

i've heard before ( probably BS) that smirnoff make morrisons own brand vodka. I'm sure it was morrisons, could have been another supermarket.

seventy

The original company was started in 1936 by Raymond E. DeWalt, the inventor of the radial arm saw.