"goodwill in the brand and reputation"
ROFLMAO
Dixons to flog off old 'brands' Miranda and Saisho
Struggling retailer Dixons Store Group has appointed an IP firm to flog off two of its now-defunct brands. Metis Partners is looking for offers for Saisho and Miranda. Saisho is offered with "goodwill in the brand and reputation", we're told. It also holds 16 international trademarks. Metis reckons Saisho has made £27m in …
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 12:06 GMT Anonymous Coward
Is there any Goodwill in a Dixons brand?
Dixons is past redemption, and I can't see how there's any goodwill left in any of its brands.
People now only buy from Dixons because either (a) they know no better or (b) they need something right now, for whatever reason, regardless of value for money, and a Dixons store is near by.
I do remember Saisho products being up there with Packard Bell for sheer shoddiness, but I don't recognize Miranda at all. Who would buy brands like these?
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 13:00 GMT Anonymous Coward
Miranda
Miranda was indeed a Japanese company and they made some very nice 35mm cameras; the most popular in sales probably being the Sensorex (I should know, i have a half dozen of them plus various Miranda (Soligor) lenses).
Back in the day, my first one was $215 US and Nikkormat was going tor around $300 US if i recall right. They had a full range of lenses and accessories available and (at least on the Sensorex) interchangeable viewfinders. Some other models had interchangeable focus screens.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 14:57 GMT Peter Gathercole
@AC
Can't even pop down to the highstreet to Dixons. It's not there, having gone web only half -a-decade ago.
All of the Dixons stores they wanted to keep were re-branded Currys.digital.
I always avoided Saisho as a brand, and - strange as it may sound - I was a committed Practika camera user, so never considered (not that I would have ) a Miranda camera.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 15:21 GMT Andrew Newstead
Me too
CE4 - cracking camera. Still got it and still works. Not used it for a while since going digital, though.
Chinon is not like the other Dixon brands, it was actually an independant Japanese camera company that Dixon's were the sole UK importer for. It had quite a good reputation for it's lenses, I still use my CE4's 50 mm lens on my digital SLR in manual mode - fast and bright.
Chinon used the Pentax mounting formats like a few camera manufacturers (Practika for example), this allowed them to take advantage of lots of 3rd party lenses made for Pentax cameras.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 22:18 GMT Nuke
Pentax Lens Mount
They are talking about the Pentax Bayonet K mount, not the M42 threaded. Pentax did indeed introduce the K mount and encouraged other makers to adopt it too. The minor makers Chinon and Ricoh did so, but otherwise this brave attempt at standardisation was futile. The present day Pentax SLRs are still basically K mount with added electrical contacts.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 12:15 GMT Marvin the Martian
I've lived for 14y in the UK...
I've never registered the existence of these brands. I'm always a bit surprised by the UK's love for Mickey Mouse brands and/or rebadged random stuff --- Goodmans here, Morphy Richards there, what's the idea, making it sound like your maverick uncle bodged them together? --- but suggesting there's some brand/value/goodwill for Miranda (for Miranda Hart: yes!) really takes the biscuit.
In the end I tried to google it... "Miranda" -- nope; "Miranda electronics" -- nope; "Miranda brand" ["did you mean miranda bran?"] -- nope. Etc.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 15:21 GMT Peter Gathercole
Bad examples - Goodmans and Morphy Richards
You can add Bush, Grundig and Ferguson.
These were all recognised brands in their own right back in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. They were not badge-only brands, and did their own product development. When the companies fell into hardship, as they all did because they tried to maintain a UK manufacturing base when making things in the far-east became much cheaper, the brand name was bought by companies that specialised in generic goods made in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea and more recently China, putting the name on the product, and presenting them to patriotic UK buyers as if they were still made in the UK. Nothing illegal, but you can bet the "Made in Wherever" was in as smaller print as they could manage while not infringing Trading Standards.
This was to capitalise on the "Buy British" campaign that tried to keep wealth in the UK during this miserable period of austerity.
If you look at Bush, it's been traded between companies for years, and is now effectively an Argos brand name.
I used to enjoy trying to spot how many different brands a product could be spotted with. Made shopping with my parents much more bearable.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 19:03 GMT AdamK
What have you learned in 14y?
That's easy. The British mostly don't care if its good. They just want cheap, cheap cheap and hope for the best. As for Matsui, I remember a few years ago there was a misrep issue about whether goods had to reflect the origins of their name. The Moben kitchens thing lasted for years. No they did not have to be Scandinavian. The Matsui issue was about applying the name to a Yugoslavian fridge.
Grundig are no longer owned outright by Koc in Turkey, they are just licensed to use it for a bit and then it returns to Harvard international who someone rightly said used to be called Alba Radio, They may have made indifferent stuff since the Fidelity stereos I remember from my youth, but they are one of the most consistently successful private companies. The failure of Grundig, Dual, Aiwa, Sansui and Akai, Zenith etc (not Akai Pro, a separate concern) indicates its not just a British phenomenon.
And for anyone who argues with my thesis for "crap if its cheap enough" I have one word. Amstrad.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 12:18 GMT Timfy67
Miranda
I still use a Miranda flash unit from around 1984 on my dSLR. It hasn't failed a shot in some 27 years on a myriad of different film and digital cameras. I also have a fully functioning Saisho 14" telly that was purchased to hook up with my new (at the time) ZX Spectrum!
I'm a cheap date!!!
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 12:36 GMT DrXym
In house crap brands
Tesco has Technika, Argos has Bush / Alba / Goodmans / Cookworks, Dixons has Logik / Advent etc., LIDL has Silvercrest, ALDI has Tevion and so on.
I guess these stores don't like to pretend these brands belong to them even though they obviously do. It doesn't even say what quality the stuff is, some of it might be good quality, some of it might be bloody awful.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 14:57 GMT DrXym
Bush, Goodmans, Alba etc.
Argos, and yes the brands used to be independent, owned by Alba plc. From reading Wikipedia it seems Alba plc renamed as Harvard International and that the Alba, Bush & Goodmans brands were purchased for exclusive use by Argos in 2008. So Argos owns the brands, presumably Harvard makes the kit or OEM sources it. Grundig used to be an Alba brand too but was bought out by Beko.
The situation has reached comic levels of stupid in the past. I recall Argos selling 3 Freesat boxes by Goodmans, Bush & Grundig with about £30 difference between the least and most expensive models. They all contained the same electronics, the only difference being the fascias and branding.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 13:00 GMT MJI
Miranda WAS a good brand.
There was the real Miranda, I have a Miranda Sensomat.
http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Miranda_Sensomat
Pretty good camera except mine now has a light leak on the back cover, but it is over 40 years old. I have a few Tamron adaptamatic lenses as well.
We absolutely DETEST Dixons for using the brand for shoddy rubbish!
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 14:00 GMT TeeCee
Re: Pretend Japanese.
I think that was the aforementioned "Matsui". What they got screwed for was using the strapline; "Japanese technology made perfect." in their ads. Yes that was a Currys brand, but this was after it became part of Dixons group.
The only suprising thing is that the grounds for screwing 'em were purely that it wasn't Japanese, as there's another word in there that's even more obviously total bullshit.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 15:21 GMT Zog The Undeniable
The antithesis of "Superbrands"
Saisho and Miranda were right up there with Alba and Crown as brands. Proof, if you like, that landfill quality in electronics existed long before the current trend to manufacture everything from cheese in Chinese slave camps.
When I did a Saturday job for Currys in the 1980s we had a top-of-the-range Alba tower stereo unit delivered. We took it out of the box to use as a display model and the entire front panel fell off, exposing the cheap electronics inside, because no-one had put any screws in.
I briefly owned a Crown personal stereo which played all tapes about 25% too fast. I timed "Bohemian Rhapsody" and it got through it in under 5 minutes, making Freddie Mercury sound unusually falsetto. Got a refund on that one.
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Wednesday 18th May 2011 15:45 GMT Richard Porter
Matsui
Matsui was Curry's equivalent of Saisho. I've had a Matsui microwave oven for many years and it's given excellent service. Moreover it has a simple keypad interface that lets me key in the number of minutes and seconds I require. I hate equipment that tries to second guess me the whole time.
Saisho just sounds like fishy Japanese food.
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Thursday 19th May 2011 10:21 GMT Anonymous Coward
Seems to have done OK though?
I mean, he appears to have made quite a good living out of selling cheap cack to the less discerning consumers. As you say, this is the UK
I like Argos where I recently bought a steam iron for £3.99 because the holiday park I was staying in was going to charge me a fiver to rent an iron for 1 day. I did have to smile when asked if I'd like to take out an extra years Warranty though
And we wonder why there is so much waste
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Thursday 19th May 2011 11:31 GMT Alan Edwards
Not all bad...
I had a Matsui microwave for over 20 years, and it took a hammering in that time too. Power supply finally popped earlier this year, got replaced by one a lot smaller and you have to set the timer by twiddling a knob for ages. That one may not see this year out, I want one with a proper keypad again.
I've got a Miranda video light too. Other than awkwardly taking 5xAA batteries, it works fine. I got it used off eBay for a few quid.
Warranties, heh. Argos tried to flog me a warranty for £6 on a £15 desk fan.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
