Great 'disguised Own Brand' Hunt.

richto

ajdandcjd wrote:

Just an amusing story to prove the point so to speak - my husband used to work on Rolls Royce aircraft engines and the ball bearings used on some of the components are exactly the same as the ones used on domestic washing machines but for the aircraft they paid around £300 and you can buy them for the washing machine for probably £30 at the most! Therefore, if you need a bearing for your aircraft engine - buy a washing machine one!!!

Aircraft parts have to be certified to a very high level of quality and traceable to the exact point of manufacture. So whilst a machine machine bearing might fit, it is not an equivalent replacement or 'exactly the same'.

justtoclarify_2

Gemini21 wrote:

I understand that Bosch are also part of the same group as Hotpoint, Bosch marketed as top of the range and Hotpoint further down!

The Hotpoint brand is owned by the Indesit Group. Indesit also own the brands Creda, Ariston and Cannon.

Bosch brands include Bosch (obviously), Siemens and Teknik for domestic appliances. There are others as mentioned in this thread, but what varies between the brands is the length of warranty, typically 2 years for Bosch and between 2 and 10 for Siemens. My experience is with Bosch that the basic models are made in Poland (labelled as made in the EU) and high end ones are still labelled made in Germany. Siemens models have "better" styling, but really it is still a washing machine and how many programs will you really use?

For bargin hunters out there, if you are buying AEG washing machine, you will get a standard 1 year warranty. However if you buy from one their preferred suppliers you get 2 year warranty, so if there is difference in price check how long the manufacturers warranty is. The preferred suppliers seem to include suppliers with stores where the salesperson can tell you about all the good reasons to buy AEG.

A good rule of thumb is that the longer manufacturer parts and labour warranty is, the less likely the product is to fail in warranty.

A manufacturer offering only 1 year labour and 5 year parts, tends to have an interest in the company authorised to do the repairs and generally a high minimum callout charge. So the free part may become a very expensive repair charge.

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

loopy_lass wrote:

i was told the other day that belling make beko, anyone know if its true and are beko cookers any good as im considering buying one.

loops

We had a Beko freestanding cooker,worked but oven was naff, you could put a pie in and the bottom pastry would stay soggy no matter how long you left it, were told it was a problem with cheap ones without a fan oven, got rid of it when we moved.

Moonbeam

Not sure if this has already appeared, but Mira Showers make the B&Q home-brand showers. There are slight differences in specifiction, but it may be wiser to spend more money on the B&Q home brand higher spec shower than on a Mira brand lower spec shower.....just read this back - hope it makes sense.

Dave_Dongle

Mad_Maz wrote:

I worked in a pie factory a couple of year's ago (now no jokes here!) in the West Midlands who make top quality pies and quiches and supply the better end of the market. They were delicious. We tried to get into Asda etc but found to make any profit from the products we would have to skimp on the products used and use inferior tasting produce. The company were not prepared to cut down on taste and quality and so decided not to go with the supermarkets. I believe some non branded goods are fine but do believe that quality is sometimes skimped on to make a profit as supermarkets cut the proft margin to the bone for manufactuers.

I used to work for an oils and fats company supplying to the likes of Northern Foods (who do M&S stuff), GINSTERS and Pork Farms.

Basically its down to the type of 'fat' used in the product beit savoury pastry or a sweet biscuit.

Better 'quality' items use a blend of either Non All Vegetable Fats, which is many a mix of Tallow Fat and Fish Oil mixed with a rapeseed oil which is extremely common in a lot of foods.

Tallow makes food taste more meaty and in the late 80's McDonalds were allegedly told to take it out of its Frying oil as it made the taste buds want eat more hamburgers!

Cheaper oils known as All Vegetable are used in cheaper items such as Tesco Value Biscuits etc. Also some oils are hydrogenated to make them last longer - typically Restaurant/Beefeater type chips/nuggets etc as opposed to proper chip shops who use pure palm oil.

Dave_Dongle

A few others I know of:

1) Meyer Cookware (Anolon, Circulon Brands) also produce Prestige cookware and utensils and they roughly come out of the same factories in the far east and italy. Meyer cookware is also M&S own brand.
2) JS Nichols (producers of Vimto) do all the own brand fruit cordials and fizzy drinks for the supermarkets
3) Golden Wonder make all the own brand crsips for Asda; Tesco; Sainsbury
4) Hartleys make all the tinned carrots/peas and jams for the supermarkets
5) Henkel & Evostik make a lot of the own brand mastics found at Builders Merchants/DIY

Own brand is a very lucrative market for the retailer/distributor & manufacturer - there are good margins to be made and also keeps people in jobs as it covers overheads.

charlieheard

ukbandit wrote:

The following car manufacterers are the same, being part of the VW groups:
Audi
VW
Seat
Skoda.

the mechanics are the same, with the differences being styling at the most.

so:
A3=Golf=Leon etc.

I'm afraid ukbandit is wrong to say that the only difference is the styling. The makes are targeted at different markets (Audi=BMW, VW=Ford(?+), SEAT=Alfa Romeo & Skoda=cheap. To achieve this, the VW group shares engines and floorpans to save costs, but changes the ride quality, interior quality and fittings to suit the market. It's the same with

• Ford - Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin & Land Rover are or soon will be sharing engines and/or floorplans
• Vauxhall/Opel - The latest SAABs are based on a Vectra, and though Subaru have left the fold, you can still buy a "SAABaru" in the USA
• Mercedes Benz & Chrysler are now sharing floorpans and engines (Crossfire=SLK)
• VW - you missed out Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini which use VW-based engines (and with Bentley even the floorpan)

Don't tell me that a Volvo is the same as a Ford, or a SAAB is the same as a Vauxhall, or a Bentley is the same as a VW.

cozzie

I recently bought a Durabrand stereo and found it was virtually the same as a Bush model just without the tape deck.

callansdad

I've only read the first 12 pages of this so forgive me if this has been posted elsewhere.

Lidls own shortbread (i think its called Castillo) is actually made by Walkers Shortbread

I know this as my partner used to work with Walkers, i will get him to confirm this later. I don't know if any of the ingredients are changed though, but it's still good!

lola_the_cat

I heard ages ago that Marks and Spencer's cosmetics are made by Clinique. Can anyone confirm if this is true or who does make them.