News
Pulse Home Products has appointed Robert
Leechman as
non-executive chairman. Robert has been executive chairman of Commercial Advantage Services, a London-based consultancy, and prior to that spent over 20 years with Coca-Cola both in Europe and in global operations. Pulse’s portfolio of small appliance brands includes Breville, Nicky Clarke, Dirt Devil and Hinari.
The Big Red Sales national sales team has expanded further
with the addition of two new sales personnel. Bill Hands has been appointed as sales agent for
Scotland and Dave Anderson joins BRS to look after the Northern England territory. Before joining Big Red Bill
Hands worked for Panasonic and Tefal where he held similar positions.
Dave Anderson joins BRS
from Harris and Russell Ltd where he worked for 13 years. Prior to that he spent 18 years with Michael Black.
Independent Retailer Month 2012 - the conference
To launch the Independent Retailer Month 2012 in July, a one-day conference is going to take place on Sunday, 1 July, at Cranmore Park near Solihull. This unique event, is dedicated to providing inspiration and useful information (advice, support, expertise, training and insights) tailored to the needs of the UK's independent retail community.
Independent Retailer Month launch conference tickets are on sale for £50. For detail on how to register for the conference go to:
www.independentretailermonth.co.uk
Close and personal
ATTENDING annual conventions and product showcases of the leading CE brands has given me a feel for the things to come in 2012. It was difficult at times not to be swept by
enthusiasm seeing how the latest technology is going to help us communicate effortlessly and instantly with our friends and family – of course providing that we have access to the same product platforms. ‘Swiping’ and ‘throwing’ content between mobile phones, tablets and televisions has to be seen to be believed. The new Smart TV platform is about personalization. The face recognition function on Samsung Smart TV will even automatically create a profile of the user and will adjust the suggested content to their tastes on the basis of their viewing history. This is truly
something special, although some people may feel that this too close to Big Brother for comfort.
The multiple high street brands have been trying to get to know us for over a decade inviting us to join their loyalty schemes which allow them to collect information about our shopping habits and lifestyle choices. Some of these attempts to get closer to customers misfire, damaging for ever the ‘relationship’; such as when I received dog food vouchers from Tesco where I
occasionally shop for basic groceries and Whiskers for my cat. A recent survey conducted by SAP UK (see page 4) found that over half of the responding retailers are unable to act upon the vast amounts of consumer data they collect, failing to gain
valuable insights from it. How insightful is this? At the same time local retailers and service providers, who make it their business to get to know us well, rarely fail to act on this knowledge. Shouldn’t they be the beneficiaries of the modern thirst for ‘close and personal’?
Anna Ryland, Editor
aryland@datateam.co.uk
Business as usual
The heavy snowfall at the beginning of February didn’t disrupt business at Michael R Peters in Bedford. While the town was covered in snow, the store’s customers received a message: “Business as usual – same day delivery even in the snow”.
6 The Independent Electrical Retailer March 2012
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