Category: Appliance

Privately held Nortek has begun soliciting votes from debt holders to approve a financial restructuring that would swap most of the company’s debt for equity. Balloting ends Oct. 16, according to New York City-based Financial Balloting Group, Nortek’s balloting agent. If debtholders approve the p…

Big losses at Focus DIY but foundations in place for brighter future. Evidence of the difficulties at home improvement retailer Focus DIY came this week with the company reporting a pre-tax loss of £95.3 million on sales of £501.9m for the year to February 22.

As we reported a few months ago the domestic insurance group Homeserve have said today it has sold off its loss-making repair services in an £11 million deal. The firm now aims to concentrate on its insurance arm. Homeserve announced in May that it planned to sell off the emergency ser…

B&Q have said measures to help its UK and Ireland business were paying off after it reported a 35% rise in half-year profits. The group has revamped stores and launched product and service initiatives such as self-service check-outs in a bid to weather tough conditions.

Revenue & Customs is developing new measures that could lead to higher charges for insurance contracts sold with household repair services and domestic appliances. The move follows a High Court ruling in favour of Homeserve, the emergency home plumbing and electrics firm.

It appears that the European Commission is planning to outlaw less efficient appliances, televisions and other electrical devices according to reports in the press. The European Commission is demanding that manufacturers cut the energy consumption of televisions by a fifth. Both officials and man…

The WEEE compliance scheme REPIC which acts on behalf of a consortium of manufacturers has been ordered to pay full costs, which could be as much as £1 million, to the defendants in the judicial review that the company unsuccessfully pursued this year. It has emerged that the company was to…

EURONICS International, Europe’s biggest buying group in the consumer electronics (CE) market, achieved sales worth EUR 14.4 billion in the past financial year. Thus the co-operative partnership recorded significant 14.3 percent growth in 2008. By contrast, the European market as a whole contract…

As expected the war has begun as Best Buy start ramping things up for their UK launch early next year and, as a part of this plan, their UK website has been launched. Well, not really launched as such, more a kind of calling card that says, we’re coming.

£3m pumped into PJH as housing collapse hurts The slump in the housing market has slashed profit and sales at Bolton-based kitchens and bathroom distributor PJH Group Ltd. The Taiwanese-owned company saw pre-tax profit fall by 33.9 per cent to £6.6m in the year to December 2008, while…