Turns out, we don’t have enough brands out there already, who knew? So CIH/Euronics is introducing not just one but two new brands, for some reason.
Like it or not we’re getting Schönhaus and Sensis.
We have no idea either where Schönhaus came from as the only reference we can find of any note is for a WWII forger in Berlin who seems to be a pretty good guy but apart from that we can’t find anything of interest.
Sensis there’s a few companies using the name so that might be a problem as one of them is registered trade mark for the owner of Yellow Pages in Australia at least. We didn’t’ dig too deep, all we were looking for was a website for the appliances.
There is a Schönhaus website but it’s currently password locked.
Anyway, Sensis seems to be pitched at the budget end of the market, and Schönhaus pitched higher, supposedly to the over 50’s, making a more “considered” purchase.
There’s no indication of who is making these products for the buying group presently, and with so little to go on, it’s not possible to say for sure, but we’d expect the usual suspects are making products for the brands.
As for service, which I am sure many readers are interested in, we’ve got no clue at all what arrangements are in place.
What is most interesting though is the reason for these brands as some manufacturers, apparently, are ceasing to support the independent retailers and so the independents have decided to do for themselves as it were. Something that we have mooted the service industry should look to do as well.
It would be nice, though likely a fanciful idea, is the independent retailers would work with independent service partners so that they could help to support one another.
Maybe one day we’ll all play nice…
Looking at the photos of each of these brand’s products, I bet they are sourcing Sensis branded appliances from Vestel, and Schönhaus branded stuff from Haier.