News


Glen Dimplex Home Appliances has announced changes to its senior


management team. Current sales and marketing director, Jonathan Casley, has been promoted to the newly created role of managing director. Jonathan joined the business in 1998 as business development manager and become sales and marketing director in 2001. In his 15 years within the business, Jonathan has played a strategic role in the development of GDHA’s brands: Stoves, Belling, New World and Lec. Jonathan will be succeeded by David Garden, currently the commercial manager for freestanding cookers and


Lec. David and his team have been credited with reversing the fortunes of the Lec brand since its acquisition by GDHA in 2005.


Pure has appointed Nick Hucker as its new director of


marketing. Nick replaces Colin Crawford, who has been instrumental in making Pure a leading CE manufacturer. Nick joins Pure from iRobot where he was director of global marketing communications. Prior to this he held a number of marketing positions at Dyson.


Mike Giddings has been appointed as managing director for Smeg UK and takes over from Eric Ireland who has led the company since 1997. Mike Giddings, previously sales director for the company, has been with Smeg for over 12 years.


Otone Audio has appointed Lee Smirthwaite as its new business development manager. Lee joins Otone with over ten years’ experience of working within consumer electronics, most recently at Sony.


Midwich has appointed Tony Patterson as the company’s southern area sales manager focused on the Pro Audio Visual reseller channel. Tony has over 20 years’ experience in the audio visual sector.


Can change be managed?


THE best informed market analysts could not predict the sudden and dramatic changes that shook the retail market during the last two months.


After the demise of Comet in December 2012, in the first weeks of January 2013 three major high street brands – Jessops, HMV and Blockbuster – went into administration. These were tragic developments for everyone concerned


(including the loyal customers of the retailers) but, as always in business, such developments create winners as well as losers. The death of these household brands has sent shivers down many executive spines but it also gave rise to hope in the independent sector that it could benefit from extra business capacity. The question here is: can we be ever prepared for


change? Can we predict the form and magnitude of change that is going to affect our business and our livelihood? The independents I regularly speak to are very experienced and shrewd business people who not only embraced the challenge of the internet but they also are in regular contact with their customers and trained their staff not only to respond but to anticipate customers’ needs. Yet they tell me that the ever changing political agenda and the extraordinary pace of technological developments make their future more precarious than ever.


In the meantime there are big changes ahead on the white goods side. At its European Forum in Monaco Samsung announced its plans to target the domestic appliances sector, making a substantial investment at the


premium end of the refrigeration, cooking and floorcare categories. The manufacturer is aiming to become global leader in home appliances by 2015 replicating it success in the CE and mobile sectors. Well, a stronger white goods market should be good news for the independent sector.


Anna Ryland, Editor aryland@datateam.co.uk A snowman with an agenda


Mansfield-based Domestic Supplies, the area’s largest independent supplier of appliance spare parts and new domestic appliances, has proved that a snowman can be ‘green’. During the recent winter spell, Domestic Supplies amused its customers with its environmentally-friendly snowman which was made out of recyclable products. John Wardman, the MD of the company commented: “Our snowman has become a very popular talking point in our community with its picture making its way to Facebook. We sent the photograph out as an email marketing flyer – with a link to our website, asking our customers to send us a caption. This brought many new visitors to our website.”


6 The Independent Electrical Retailer February 2013


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