Wilko Extra "Baked Beans" Oranges Design; 010

If you've been a customer of "Wilko" aka "Wilkinson's" over the last few years, you may well have caught sight of these batteries where they usually hang up next to every till, and mainly because of their striking design;

Wilko Extra "Baked Beans" Oranges 1

The funny thing is, when I was recently "diving" for batteries in one store's dead battery container, I was very pleased to see this one at the bottom thinking that if any battery design deserved an award (Like the Oscars, but... er... "The Batties?") then it would be this one. I used to think that was an image of Baked Beans" for some reason, but looking at it a bit closer it's obviously not Baked Beans but oranges (I think?) instead.

Have a think as to why oranges (or Baked Beans) might be chosen for the design of an AA battery, whilst I tell you a bit about why Wilkinson's (as I always refer to it) is also known as "Wilko";

So, originally the company was founded back in 1930, and has always been run by the Wilkinson family, hence the name.  However in 2012, the family began to re-brand the stores as "Wilko", as this was the name that was in-use on their own-brand products, much like the direct polar opposite of how "Marks and Spencer" decided to drop their own-brand "St. Michael" name in 2000, having used it for 73 years.

Just after this in 2014, one side of the family sold all their holdings after an 84-year span in retail. Sources close to the retailer insisted the family has not fallen out, but that Ms Swann’s side of the family wanted to pursue “other business interests”. Their shareholding in the business has been sold to the other side of the Wilkinson family, which is led by Lisa Wilkinson, who is now the sole chairman.

Then, Wilkinson is likely to have been valued in excess of £500m in the transaction. In 2014, it reported sales of £1.53bn and pre-tax profits of £27.5m. Karin Swann and Lisa Wilkinson are the third generation of the family to run Wilkinsons.

Wilko Extra "Baked Beans" Oranges 2

The company’s founder, who is known as JK, had two children, Tony and Barbara Wilkinson, who were the second generation to run the business. Mrs Swann is Barbara’s daughter and Lisa Wilkinson is Tony’s daughter. It is Barbara’s side of the family that decided to cease being shareholders. This means that complete ownership of the retailer has passed to Tony Wilkinson, his wife Christine, and Lisa Wilkinson, who remains the family director.

So, any guesses as to why they have used oranges on the battery?

No, neither have I. 

;-)

[EDIT: 08/01/2019 08:56 - Yes, stop laughing at the back please. I realised in a flash of inspiration last night why it's oranges...it must be because electricity / batteries can be said to have "run out of juice" where juice is a slang term for energy. I still think Baked Beans would have worked too; you can be "full of beans", can't you?]