Shaun Barrett, director of Barrett’s Digital World, has begun his term of retra presidency. Barrett’s Digital World is a 10,000 ft² out-of-town superstore in Canterbury which has been serving consumers for over 100 years.

Shaun took over the reins from Robert Hughes, director of Hughes Electrical, a chain of 44 stores across the Suffolk and the East Midlands.

Following shareholder investment and company restructuring, BDC has opened a new Centre in Broxburn, West Lothian, Scotland and it plans to open two more Centres, in the North-East of England and Northern Ireland. Four additional area sales managers have been recruited to support the company’s customers.

Manufacturers of electrical accessories will welcome the news that the popular accessory category at the Independent Business Awards will be split into Accessories for Consumer Electronics Products and Accessories for White Goods and Floorcare.

Indesit Company is to join the smart grid technology company RLtec, and energy company npower, in Europe’s largest residential trial of dynamic demand technology. The trial will demonstrate the potential for ‘smart’ appliances fitted with dynamic demand technology to reduce CO2 emissions in the UK, by up to 2 million tons per annum.

Freesat, the subscription-free digital TV satellite service, has launched a major TV advertising campaign to stimulate interest in its offers and the new Freesat+ HD recorders which are going to be on sale in time for Christmas.

Britain’s supermarket chains have launched the biggest discounting bonanza in years before the Christmas season, with toys, gifts and electricals on sale more than a month and a half before the big day. The big four grocers are trying to capture entertainment and toy sales following the collapse of Woolworths and Zavvi.

Mark Veysey has joined the growing field sales team at Big Red Sales ltd to manage the South West region. The new area sales manager, who will be based in Exmouth, brings 23 years of sales and management experience in manufacturing and distribution of the brown and white goods sectors and home improvement industries.

I recently read an interesting piece of research showing that coffee shop chains have grown by 47% across the UK during the last year. The fact that this growth took part during the deep recession indicates that it cannot be explained by our growing love of coffee alone. The Local Data Company, who commissioned the research, attributed this growth to an increasing number of business meetings being held over coffee rather than expensive meals. Also the mobile workforce commonly using wi-fi technology tend to do some work ‘on the go’ in coffee shops.

Capitalising on the growing demand for AV furniture with a difference, Yorkshire-based AV furniture company Off The Wall (UK) Limited has launched two stylish TV furniture products. Following the success of its Origin range, the new Skyline and Profile ranges have been designed to meet the demand for elegant, high quality TV furniture at affordable prices. The Skyline range is based on a cantilever design that removes the need for pole legs for support, creating more shelf space in less floor area with a modern, minimalist design.  It is available in two sizes, 750mm for screens up to 37in and 1000mm for screens up to 52in and with two colour options, a silver column with clear glass and a black column with black glass.

Russell Hobbs recently unveiled is latest range of products including the Quick 2 Toast which toasts bread up to two times faster than conventional toasters, says the maker.

The kitchen appliance specialist also introduced the Quick 2 Boil, which is similar to Tefal’s Quick Cup, but with the added bonus of a conventional rapid boil kettle, creating a compact two-in-one unit.

A professional association of installation and services engineers has been launched to offer service support not only to the end customer but also to smaller electrical independents who are not able to carry repairs themselves. 

A unique feature of Amica’s Scandium range of multifunctional ovens is an Aqualytic cleaning system. While oven cleaning systems usually require a period of one and a half hours at a temperature of around 500° C, Amica’s Aqualytic cleaning system uses a half litre of water and needs just 30 minutes at only 90°C. The secret is Amica’s enamel, incorporating AquaRealEase technology, which protects enamel against any reaction with food.

The Icecrypt T5000 from Turbosat is a Freeview receiver which offers a lot more than ordinary an STB. Being fully Freeview licensed and Digital Tick approved, the T5000 has the interactive EPG and Red Button features as well as guaranteeing a seamless transition in the switch from analogue to digital.

The Triblade Hand Blender range from Kenwood makes blending faster, cleaner and easier than traditional blenders. It delivers faster performance due to the stainless steel triple blade system, with each blade angled to give optimum blending performance, combined with a powerful 700 watt motor. Due to the specially designed blender foot, ridged base and precision blades the blender allows users to blend liquids without making a mess.

The ZoomBox is ROBERTS’ latest portable DAB/FM digital stereo radio with CD player that offers a zoom display, so the user can zoom right into the text on the screen for easier navigation.

Made for cooks, by cooks, the latest KitchenAid KHIS 9010 90cm induction hob provides a multitude of solutions for the user. The hob’s features include the Bridge Zone, which is designed to accommodate large or elongated pans.  The user simply places the long pan across the two zones and they automatically synchronise, creating a bridge of heat on which to cook.

Siesta Flow is PURE’s most affordable internet connected radio, incorporating ‘Flow’ technology. It provides access to 365 alarm tones via an online portal, the PURE Lounge (www.thelounge.com).

Siesta Flow uses a Wi-Fi connection to access internet radio, podcasts, listen again content and can even stream music direct from a Wi-Fi enabled computer. Also available from The Lounge is a unique selection of PURE Sounds for night time or for waking up.

The Selborne, the latest solid fuel stove from Dimplex, has  ‘clean burn’ design for wood burning in UK smoke control areas, with a high efficiency of up to 82%.

Offering a tested heat output of 5.0kW with wood and 4.8kW with Pureheat smokeless fuel, the stove has a slim profile, making it suitable for less-deep hearths. It has a robust steel cast-iron with cast top and door and brushed steel handles for a contemporary touch in a classic look.

Winner of a Red Dot award 2009, Miele’s Cabrio extractor cooker hood, integrates flush to the wall, to maximise use of space and provide streamlined design. When not in use, the Miele Cabrio features stylish LED lighting to enhance the kitchen space ambience. When cooking, hob downlighting is sufficiently bright to illuminate the entire hob and surrounding work top.

John Reddigton began his professional life as training accountant. It wasn’t long, however, before he realised that his personality wasn’t well suited to the accountancy profession. A straight talking northerner, with a passion for business and of 1970s rock music, John describes himself, as a people’s person. Perhaps it isn’t surprising that he forged his career in sales and has built around himself strong sales teams which were instrumental to the success of his companies, firstly Alphason and now Big Red Sales.

Mathias Tingström, who is responsible for the design of the recently launched Charisma collection – which includes a freestanding washing machine, a dishwasher and a fridge freezer – says that he takes inspiration for his designs from a wide range of sources. “We have ongoing research activities which generate consumer insights from different sources, such as consumer homes, shops or places of social interactions, such as clubs. It gives us an idea what are the main drives of the current trends.

The UK population is not only growing in size but it is also getting older.  According to the Office for National Statistics, 16% of the UK population in 2008 was over 65 with more than 1.3 million people aged 85 and over.  Although the effect of the post-war baby boom will start to decrease around 2030, the number of these “oldest old” in the UK is projected to double by 2033 so that almost 5% of the total population could be aged 85 or more.

Accessories have long been hailed by manufacturers and switched-on retailers as the indispensable high-margin add-on for any consumer electronics sale. But on the other side of the till, media hype about “rip-off Britain” and negative publicity generated by events such as the Competition Commission report on extended warranties a few years ago have conspired to give consumers a jaundiced view of anything that smacks of an ‘add-on’. Is that ‘essential item’ the salesperson has just thrown into the mix really that crucial to the full enjoyment of their imminent purchase?

Stuart Wiggins has been running an electrical independent business, in Rothbury, at the heart of rural Northumberland, for the last 20 years. In 1967, he joined the parent company, The Seaton Valley Relay, which specialized in sound and vision line rentals, as an apprentice radio and TV engineer. Having worked for the company for twelve years, during which it had undergone several transformations, Stuart bought its Rothbury branch (which he had run since 1967). In 1989, he started trading under his own name “as everybody knew me as such”.

Consumers have quickly embraced solid state audio products, and the market has segmented into a number of product groups including, personal digital music players, hi-fi systems with iPod or MP3 compatibility, iPod docking systems and media players (sometimes called home or music servers). The result is that retailers can offer a range of solid state audio products that cater for a wide range of customer needs and expectations.

The garment care category still registers a healthy £94.3m for conventional steam irons and £32.1m for steam generators (year-on-year, to end August 09; Source: GfK), despite the stiff economic climate. Looking further at the figures, conventional steam irons take around 90% of all volume sales (4.7m units) but much less in value (around 75%), with steam generators at nearly a quarter of value sales. Correspondingly, steam generators are at around 7% of volume.

This year is one which is best forgotten, except that towards the end of it some light began to show, albeit too late for some. Apart from those in the retail sector who came unstuck, 270 workers in Plymouth lost their jobs when the very last TV sets to be manufactured in this country came out of the Toshiba factory.