Monday, January 21, 2019

HBL Ignite; 021

Ignite batteries are a brand manufactured by the large company Indian company HBL;


Taken from their website

"HBL Power Systems Ltd is a listed Indian company, in business since 1977, with a focus on engineered products and services.

Our initial business strategy was to identify technology gaps in India that the company could fill by 'indigenous efforts'.

The first products selected and successfully developed were Aircraft batteries - eventually leading to HBL offering the worlds widest range of specialized batteries.

Our expertise in batteries generated opportunities and ideas to diversify. The company moved into new businesses and markets that utilise our batteries, such as industrial electronics, defense electronics, and railway electronic signaling.

Recent diversification, leveraging the companies engineering strengths, has led to new businesses in precision manufacturing, spun reinforced concrete and 'green' technology products.

Our success has been built serving some of the world's most demanding customers and applications. We would value your opportunity to serve your business."


Interesting stuff, finding the first "Indian"-brand battery... even if it is still made in China. You'd think that Indian labour was cheaper than Chinese, but I guess not...

Ningli Super Heavy Duty; 020

Ningli wasn't a brand I'd heard of, but I expected it to be one of the "generic" Chinese brands, and a quick look showed I was correct;


quoting from HiSupplier.com;

"Ningbo Nlingli Battery Co., Ltd. has been developed for more than 10 years, located in Wushan Industrial Zone, Xidian town Ninghai county Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province,China. 

Our company has advanced equipment and professional staff members for production, management and sale. All of our products have been certified through the International IEC. We also use automatic detection system to control product quality. Our company has registered a brand "Team Power " for our quality products. Our slogan is "power of cohesion; value of integrity". 


Our company has two production lines. We are specializing in the production of alkaline manganese batteries ,carbon-manganese batteries,and other batteries, with the models of LR03,LR6,LR14,LR20,R03,R6,R14,and R20."

Ever Ready; Old Red; 019

My goodness! I never expected to see this "blast from the past"... an old Ever Ready "red" battery!

Ever Ready Red 1

So, not to be confused with the still-existing company "Eveready" (note the lack of the extra "r"), this is a battery from the old British "Ever Ready Electrical Company"

Ever Ready Red 2

From the Wikipedia entry;

The British Ever Ready Electrical Company (BEREC) was a British electrical firm formed in 1906 as the export branch of the American Eveready Battery Company. In 1914 it became independent of its American parent company.

For decades the firm dominated the UK consumer battery market and had several factories in the UK, the largest of which was built at Tanfield Lea, County Durham, in 1968. Other factories included Dawley, Four Ashes, Maldon, Newburn, London (Victoria Works and Forest Road) and Park Lane, Wolverhampton. The company's research effort was centred upon the Central Laboratories, later known as Group Technical Centre, in St. Ann's Road, Harringay, London N15. The company's head office was Ever Ready House in Whetstone, London N20. Overseas manufacturing sites included South Africa, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Jamaica. The company also included UK engineering divisions: Cramic Engineering and Toolrite.

In 1972, the company acquired J. A. Crabtree & Co, a manufacturer of electrical accessories.

The company was the subject of a hostile takeover by Hanson Trust in 1981. Hanson closed factories, cut jobs and sold the German (Daimon) and Italian (Superpila) subsidiaries to Duracell. Shortly before this the British Ever Ready Electrical Company changed its name to Berec Group. From the 1950s the BEREC name was only used for exports of batteries and radio sets (as British Ever Ready Export Company). Some Daimon batteries were branded BEREC as were some produced in Switzerland. One of Hanson's first decisions was to revert from BEREC back to Ever Ready as the UK brand.

In 1992, the company was sold by Hanson Trust to Ralston Purina, owners of the American Eveready company, and is now a part of Energizer Holdings. The company closed Tanfield Lea, its last UK factory, in 1996.[4] Production of some Ever Ready batteries (PP6, PP7 and PP9) continued in the UK until 1999 by Univercell Battery Company, located close to the old Dawley factory using the original machinery.

1906 to 1999; just 6 years short of 100 years... shame.

Diall; 018


Diall 1

So, what or who is Diall... ? I thought seeing the "Made in Germany" and the Czech Republic-type text, I expected it to be a German brand of some sort... but it turns out it's actually a brand of the large "Kingfisher" chain.

Diall 2

"Diall" stands for "Do It All", or shortened version of it.

From their website;

"Kingfisher plc is an international home improvement company with 1,302 stores in 10 countries across Europe, Russia and Turkey, supported by a team of 79,000 colleagues.

We offer DIY and home improvement products and services to nearly six million customers who shop in our stores and through our digital channels every week. Our customers are everyone wanting to improve their home, as well as the experts and trade professionals who help them.

We believe everyone should have a home they feel good about, so our purpose is to make home improvement accessible for everyone."

Coles; 017

Coles;

Coles Alkaline + 1
 Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Coles, is an Australian supermarket, retail and consumer services chain, headquartered in Melbourne as part of the Coles Group.

Coles Alkaline+ 2

Guess this one must have come from an Australian-purchased item, or perhaps a gift from an Australian Granny to a beloved Grandchild?

If so, at least it was something nice, and not a horrible jumper or similar...

Vinnic aka Vinnie; 016

No, it's not "Vinnie" batteries, as I first thought and named these images... it's actually "Vinnic", the name of a Chinese battery manufacturer since 1980. For some reason when I grabbed this example from out of the battery recycling bin in my local WH Smiths, i'd been chuckling to myself about the name... until I realised my mistake.

Vinnic, aka Chung Pak or "CP" was originally set up by a group and only had a total of 7 staff in their 3,000 square feet factory based at Yau Tong Bay.

Vinnic 1
Chung Pak use an evergreen tree design to acknowledge its pioneer status in the industry as to the importance and the commitment it makes to environmentally friendly production over the past 30-odd  years. Originally,  the company specialized in producing button cell batteries, making around 1 to 2 million pieces per month. As they grew into other markets over the years, they now employ over 2500 staff across China.

Chung Pak strives to be a green enterprise and has the slogan "Green Power for a Better Environment". They now boast sales in over 21 cities worldwide.

Vinnic 2

I think the real reason I like this Vinnic so much is their website design and choice of graphics; who couldn't like their "Power Ranger"-inspired Positive Power "Vinnic Man" character;

Vinnic Branding 1

You can tell he's a man with a lot of "high voltage" in his pants...

I suppose it's somewhat ironic that they themselves suffer from companies trying to "jump on" their name and branding by releasing copycat batteries, using names like"Vimic", "Vimie", "Vinhie" and "FA vinniG", "Viririi0", "Vinlec", "Vihlec", "Vlnhie" which as Vinnic themselves state "...are strikingly similar, if not identical, to the company and trademark and / or packaging on our battery products" and yet here they are re-using a very recognisable image for their own branding...

7DayShop.com; 015

Just who, or rather what, are 7DayShop.com? Obviously they are a website of one sort or another, but where does the "seven day" bit in their name come from? Is it because being online, they are "open" seven days a week, or do they have some sort of special 7 day bargain sale going on all the time?


Well, determined to find out a little more about the company, I had a look online and found that they are pretty much an electronics retailer, dating back to the year 2000 and based in Guernsey . In the last 18 years or so, 7DayShop has become an established online seller of photography, digital and computer products with over a million happy customers.

A few years ago, and after an initial "back of a shop" beginning,  40 local people picked and packed more than 4,000 different products, from USB drives to camera straps, all in their immaculate 32,000sq ft building. Their last success were framed canvas prints of customers' favourite photographs uploaded via website snapmad.com and then they seem to be thriving.

I can't say much about how they are doing now... what I did notice was that their blog (also hosted on their main site here) doesn't look to have had a post since October 2017 which is never a good sign. There's still positive feedback examples from late last year which is great, and perhaps whomever used to write the blog has left or simply not had the time to write anything new. Shame as there were some good articles on there, like this one and this one.
One of the more interesting aspects to 7DayShop's operations is that they are one of a growing number of "Offshore Fulfilment" companies, or in layman's terms, a company using the law to gain a tax advantage. To quote this Guardian article;

"Offshore fulfilment is a creature of happy accident and the ruthlessness of good entrepreneurs in exploiting tax advantages. When Britain began levying VAT in 1973, the Channel Islands – a "crown dependency", which is independent from the UK and has stayed outside the EU – were allowed to pre-pay VAT because fresh flowers and cream imports were perishable and filling in customs forms would catastrophically delay their entry. 

In 1983, these arrangements were superseded by an EU directive that established low value consignment relief (LVCR). This allowed member states to avoid collecting VAT on low-value imports where administrative costs were deemed excessive when set against tax receipts they generated. Britain set the bar at the highest possible figure, £18 – all goods below this price imported from outside the EU did not attract VAT.

VAT-free imports from the Channel Islands remained a cottage industry until 1998 when three bright 28-year-olds on Jersey, high-street sportswear retailers Richard Goulding and Simon PerrĂ©e and their computer-savvy friend Peter de Bourcier, started selling DVDs to UK mainland customers via Play.com. 

Envying the success of what is now one of the biggest dotcom businesses, the big boys belatedly waded in: Tesco set up its own web operation called Tesco Jersey; Asda, HMV and others followed. In 2006, the transfer of goods from the UK to Jersey so they could be shipped back VAT-free to the mainland was described by Jersey's then economic development minister as "a complete sham" and Tesco and others were expelled from the island. 

The VAT loophole was too lucrative to give up, though: Tesco switched its CD and DVD website to Switzerland before quietly returning to the Channel Islands via an outsourcing fulfilment firm, The Hut Group. In 2008, the VAT loophole trade was worth £110m according to the Treasury; critics allege it is now far higher, with greetings card business Moonpig and computer game retailers thriving offshore."


I don't have a particular feeling either way for this... I know one can read all about how Starbucks avoids paying UK Tax, but at the end of the day, if it means cheaper goods, coffee, and services for me, then great. I personally think I already pay a huge amount of my income out by way of taxes and charges to the largely useless Government, and so if a celebrity like Jimmy Carr finds a way to avoid paying more tax, then good on him.

HBL Ignite; 021

Ignite batteries are a brand manufactured by the large company Indian company HBL; Taken from their website ;  "HBL Power S...