Cant catalogue companies be upfront?

maxmycardagain

Why do the big catalogue companies need so many "fronts"

Shopping direct = Isme = very.co.uk (any more) all with the same address in the fine print

JD Williams is also Simplybe and Marrisota (probably others too)

do these constitue aliases?

Slowhand

PC World, Dixons, Currys

Waitrose, Ocado, ?John Lewis?

Argos, Homebase, Habitat

etc

ThumbRemote

Different brands for different target markets.

maxmycardagain

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Different brands for different target markets.

and different APR's......

I just paid off the wifes ISME bill, and they called !!!!!! Turpin a robber?...

loulou_1984

Slowhand wrote: »

PC World, Dixons, Currys

Waitrose, Ocado, ?John Lewis?

Argos, Homebase, Habitat

etc

FYI, Ocado isn't part of Waitrose, they just stock Waitrose products.

Evilm

Littlewoods is the same as Very too.

bod1467

In some (many?) cases they are separate trading entities of a larger holding company. e.g. Argos, Homebase and Habitat are all owned by Kingfisher Group (I think)

antrobus

bod1467 wrote: »

In some (many?) cases they are separate trading entities of a larger holding company. e.g. Argos, Homebase and Habitat are all owned by Kingfisher Group (I think)

Home Retail Group.

maxmycardagain wrote: »

Why do the big catalogue companies need so many "fronts"...

Different target markets.

maxmycardagain wrote: »

....do these constitue aliases?

Trading names certainly. Once you'be built the infrastructure to service an online store, replicating that offer by having another website under a different name is relatively trivial. So, for example neither Boots nor Next actually sell electrical appliances online, they are both trading names of DRL, operating (presumably) under license.

stclair

maxmycardagain wrote: »

Why do the big catalogue companies need so many "fronts"

Shopping direct = Isme = very.co.uk (any more) all with the same address in the fine print

JD Williams is also Simplybe and Marrisota (probably others too)

do these constitue aliases?

JD Williams have loads of aliases:

http://www.nbrown.co.uk/OurBrands

http://www.homeshoppingdirect.com/shop/

InsideInsurance

maxmycardagain wrote: »

Why do the big catalogue companies need so many "fronts"

They are trading styles or they are separate legal entities held within the same group.

It is common across almost all trades with each brand having a different proposition/ target market etc.

Look at insurance Admiral, Bell, Diamond, Elephant, Confused.com are all Admiral Group, Direct Line, Privilege, Churchill, GreenFlag, RBS (insurance), Natwest (insurance), NIG etc are all Direct Line Group etc

Looking at Cars, VAG group has Bugatti to target the ultra high net worth, Audi & Porsche aimed at the luxury market, VW for the mass market and Skoda for the budget

I guess the question really is, what do you think you are losing by one company having multiple brands?

The only time I used to get annoyed with it all was with a certain company that owned its own delivery company but still insisted on passing you between each other blaming each other etc. Externally that may have been ok because its the same as different departments but having worked for that company I knew that many of the staff were cross trained and so rather than telling me to call "the delivery company" they could have switched system and checked themselves.

The above however was just a customer service issue and not "hiding" anything or profiteering etc