Warefedale do not own their own name -hence Argos crap

I am a proud owner of Warfedale Diamnond 9.1s which are great little speakers for a bedroom setup like mine. I have noticed that Argos also sell a load of cheap products under the Warfedale name.

These are just rebranded Vestol/Beko etc products.

I have ofted wondered why the owners of Warfedale speakers have allowed these cheap products to use their name. Well the instruction manaual for my speakers seems to have the answer. The warefedale name is being used under licence by a holding company which owns the name and licences it.

In a few years time will Quad perhaps replace the Alba brand? Maybe NAIM could be used on cheap plasmas and Arcam on cheap £20 tesco HIFIs.

It is a really sad state of affairs. It is a really better as Warfedale as a speaker company is probably stronger now than it has been since the 70's but people now think of it as a manufacturer of cheap TVs and not a serious loud speaker company (their most expensive speakers cost £14k).

PS My parents own a Warfedale CRT TV its not too bad but cheaply made but as a Samsung tube.

I am so glad that Cambridge Audio have survived this cheapening of brand names and if anything are again now stronger then they ever have been since the Audio Partnership took them over.

To cut a long story short if you ever wondered why IAG has allowed the Warfedale brand to end up on Alba quality goods well it is because it seems IAG does not own the brand, it just licences it from the brands owner.

 

Yeah that explains a lot - I bought a CD boom box thing from Argos for someone in hospital thinking it would be reasonable quality (build quality even, not necessarily sound quality) due to the Wharefadale brand - it was shockingly badly made.

 

I doubt there is anything in this personally. It is quite normal for a large corporate group to separate brand ownership into an SPV or HoldCo. That might be for tax purposes, for operational effectiveness (particularly, as in the case of IAG, where a large number of brands are owned) or simply to structure the corporate group in a logical manner to name a few.

For example, holding the brand in a tax efficient location would enable the corporate group to shift profits away from the manufacture and sales/distribution channels to a low tax jurisdiction. Holding multiple brands in a single company or sub-group of companies would facilitate central control of marketing and brand management (for example, IAG will almost certainly want to manage the development of all of their brands in a co-ordinated manner to avoid cannibalisation of one brand's customer base by one of their own other brands). Finally, having the (valuable, but intangible) brand assets in a separate company will simplify things if, for example, IAG were to spin-off their manufacture or sales/distribution activities.

I doubt very much that the company which owns the Wharfedale brand is outside of the IAG corporate group - might be easy to check though; what was the company name?

 

I never liked warefedale.

warefedale are a poor make.


wharfedale on the other hand

 

I just cannot see why IAG would giv away the Warfdale brand though to end up as cheap TVs. There is clearly no link to between the two companies. Maybe IAG does own the brand but I would be surprised.

I have just noticed that Argos no longer seems to stock many of these items so hopefully the brand can just go back to making high quality loudspeakers .

 

............ made the Dovedale

not this wofdal
http://www.wharfedalepro.com/Company/IntroductiontoIAG/tabid/60/Default.aspx

though they did make a Mission midi i own, looks great on the outside... but sound's like it looks on the inside

 

IAG seems to own the Wharfedale brand in Aust. i own a pair

 

Wharfedale seems to be held by IAG in AUST. I own a pair
of OPUS 3 plus the matching Centre speakers they are beautifully finished in Rosewood and are fitted with their own
made speakers they are big and heavy sound great but others
might not agree horses for courses they say Noel W.

 

I also have just bought a pair of 9.1 and although i know the brand even i had to battle through the fact that its will bear the seam name as a lot ot argo shite.
- Our telly in second year was a whalfdale branded afare, a 28" widescreen crt bought for about £35 new from unheard of hole found by my housemate on hotukdeals.

Odd.

Mind you, i also worked for JCB on my placment, and have to see all there branded shite (alba power tools etc) too.

Daniel

 

All boils down to money .....

selling the brand or allowing the name to be used [not certain which] ...has allowed iag to obtain an income from a dead brand [how ever good in the past]

its a shame the name is now going to be associated with the usual argos pooh

though it probabley means the people at iag have retained their jobs through the recession

 

I find the whole setup of concealing ultimate ownership behind an array of brand names very unsatisfactory and - in many cases - misleading to the customer.

 

just got a set of 20 year old wharfdales for my second system, lovely sound
we also have just bought some real quality wharfdale audio monitors for our community pa system
some nice stuff about but glad you raised this issue which i have often wondered about

 

I wonder if the situation has changed again in recent months.
With Peter Comeau now at the helm of IAG product design and development we could see some excellent products coming to market - especially speakers given Peter's long and distinguished career designing speakers.
I think he was interviewed in HFW recently and has great plans for Wharfedale speakers. The new Diamonds seem to making friends in the press. Some of the design and materials in those modestly priced boxes would have been unimaginable at anything near the price twenty years ago.
Can only be good IMO.