Menu
In the latest edition of Retra’s Alert Magazine, our very own Purchasing Director, Dan Brown, and Sales Director, Rob Greenlees sat down with journalist Sean Hannam at the Mitchell & Brown HQ for our brand-new Experience Centre launch day to catch up on all the exciting things going on within the business.
Sean Hannam: TVD Group owns the Mitchell & Brown TV brand, which is on display at the Experience Centre. What’s your take on the TV market now? Is it tough?
Dan Brown: Yes – it’s tough and competitive, but it’s been likethat for the past 26 years – nothing really changes. Since the internet came in, which was a long time ago, a lot of things are more visible – you do come up with some discounters…
SH: Have you had a good year?
DB: So far, so good. We’re up on last year – both Mitchell & Brown and the TVD Group. Last year was our best year ever.
Rob Greenlees: With our brand, we’ve stuck to our word – it is for the independents, and we’ve never wavered from that. You won’t see us on AO and discounters.
DB: We’ve been approached, and we’ve talked to them, but we thought it would affect our business.
SH: You sell through Euronics and Sirius, and other independents…
DB: We do sell to Euronics retailers – and we have Pik-a-Pak, or Bluestem, as they are now, who distribute our products.
SH: You’ve made a big thing of the seven-year parts and labour warranty on your products, which sets you apart…
DB: Exactly.
RG: We’ve had a central stand [for the TVs] from the beginning, which is a big thing for independents.
DB: What we tend to do is listen to our customers and then act on it.
RG: We can’t cater for everyone, but we try our best.
DB: In the early days, we had some comments about improving the sound – with a lot of flatscreen TVs, the sound isn’t that brilliant… We addressed that and we improved the sound by putting speaker boxes within the screen.
RG: We were asked for a big button remote, so we brought that to market in the past few months – it’s been greatly received by the independents and the end users.
SH: Is that because your customers tend to be older?
DB: Our demographic is 60-plus.
RG: The big button remote is a good add-on sale for dealers – they can package it with the TV.
SH: Are you looking for more Mitchell & Brown dealers?
DB: We’re always looking for more. They’re guaranteed a 20 to 25 percent margin across the year and we also offer next-day delivery – whether it’s single or multiple items.
RG: We also offer POS and bespoke walls for shops, and 50/50 advertising with the dealers in their local area.
SH: You launched QLED TVs last year – what are your future plans for Mitchell & Brown?
DB: We’re currently looking at OLED, but whether that’s going to happen the early part of next year…We’ve got to negotiate a little bit harder.
SH: But you’re confident for the business going forward?
DB: Yes – we’ve got more or less a screen size that suits everybody.
To see the latest range of our Mitchell & Brown TVs
