Strong demand for flat screen televisions and satellite navigation systems drove profits higher at Kesa Electricals, owner of the Comet retail chain. Pre-tax profits at the group jumped 15.4% to £165.4m in the year ending January 31. Profits from Comet, which is partway through a store refu…
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Aga cooks up special dividend
Premium kitchen equipment supplier Aga has warmed its investors with the promise of a special dividend, and predicted it would benefit from growing awareness of environmental issues. Aga Foodservice Group, best known for its eponymous cast iron ovens, announced a near 8% increase in pre-tax profi…
Currys to stop selling incandescent bulbs
High street retailer Currys today flicked the off-switch for inefficient lighting by announcing that it would no longer sell high-energy incandescent bulbs. The announcement, which comes a day after the chancellor, Gordon Brown, pledged to remove the bulbs from UK homes by 2011, will see them dis…
Samsung Chief Bugged By Global Competition
South Korea could face fierce global competition that threatens entire industries in four to six years, Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee said. “Not only Samsung but the whole nation should wake up. Otherwise we may face a chaotic situation in four to six years,” Lee said at a meeting of busines…
Restraint Of Trade And Technical Information For Appliances
Technical Information Is witholding technical information morally correct or even legal? On a daily basis we are asked by email, phone calls and in the UK Whitegoods forums what the fault codes on many machines mean. The simple fact is that, in many cases, it’s nothing short of miracu…
Class Action Filed Against Whirlpool
Little Rock, AR: A class action lawsuit has been filed against Whirlpool Corporation: Paula Rush et al, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, Case No. 07-2066 claiming that Whirlpool knew, or should have known, that the side-by-side refrigerators were def…
Dealers to police WEEE?
Dealers may be forced to “challenge” and inform the authorities of rogue producers under the forthcoming WEEE Directive. After several delays, the Department of Trade and Industry finally launched the guidance notes for the Directive last week ““ 11 weeks after the regulations were p…
Robots who do household chores!
Engineers at Tokyo University have developed two robots named HRP-2 NO.7 and NO.8. According to the developers, the two robots are domestic treasures and serve their owner together with one working as a “bartender” behind the kitchen counter and the other as a “waiter.” Though, the robot might lo…
Bosch-Siemens to open refrigerator plant outside St. Petersburg in June
Bosch-Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH is planning to open a 50 million euro plant to produce refrigerators outside of St. Petersburg in June of this year, Richard Bendele, general director of BSH Bytowaya Technika, the Russian subsidiary of Bosch- Siemens, told reporters on Tuesday.
MFI sale cost Galiform £187m in write-offs
The sale of the loss-making MFI furniture chain cost £187m in write-offs, owner Galiform revealed today. The 200-store business, Britain’s biggest furniture retailer, was sold to the private equity firm Merchant Equity Partners last September for a nominal £1, following mounting losses.