Turning on a radio or television these days can be a depressing experience.

The news seems to be dominated by the credit crunch and its aftermath. What started as a banking crisis has now spread into the broader economy, with sales volumes under pressure in most sectors.

Our own industry cannot be immune from these pressures, and inevitably manufacturers and retailers of domestic appliances have been focusing their attention on ways to keeping sales rolling. But it is important to realise that ‘life goes on'.

Keeping Members informed

The fact that manufacturers and retailers are facing difficult times has not slowed the flow of new proposals and regulations emanating from Europe or the UK which affect our industries.

At AMDEA, we continue to provide a constant stream of information to our members. So much so, that earlier this year we introduced TechAler, a regular report each Friday which summarises the many technical documents sent out to members during the previous week. This allows our busy members to concentrate their efforts on running their businesses, secure in the knowledge that they can see what is happening in terms of regulatory or technical developments relevant  to them.

Alongside TechAlert, we continue to provide a monthly newsletter and - naturally - we continue to provide a constant response and advice service to our members.

In addition, we have started a series of half-day briefings to keep our members informed. The first one of these was held on 27 November on the subject of EU environmental legislation. Other briefings will follow in the next few months.

Energy efficiency continues

We have also continued to run our ‘Time to Change' campaign throughout 2008. Whilst many will argue that the environmental benefits of changing older domestic appliances have been overshadowed by the state of the economy, in fact the increases in energy prices which we have seen this year serve only to emphasise the validity of our campaign. We have recently updated the calculator on our website to show the considerable energy savings to be made when trading in an older appliance for a new energy efficient one.

This calculator is also now available on the retra website, as part of the collaborative efforts between manufacturers and retailers to help inform consumers of energy-saving choices available to them.

So life really does go on. Whilst dealing with the problems posed by the economy, we cannot afford to lose sight of potential assaults by regulators and others. We, as manufacturers and retailers,  need to stay on top of the situation which we face, in all its aspects.

Industry's agenda

We need to react not only to what is presented to us, but also to emphasise the positive steps which our industry has taken to improve the products we sell to our consumers, such as:

• Greater variety of products, providing much improved life-styles.
• Huge improvements in efficiency, both in terms of performance and energy consumption.
• Great reliability, as well as excellent after sales service.

Domestic appliance manufacturers will continue to work closely with retailers to put these messages across, and AMDEA will certainly play its part in this process.

We have to continue providing good quality products at realistic prices. We need to also remain informed of the regulatory environment in which we have to operate.