Godfreys

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Godfreys are a niche appliance retailer based in Australia and New Zealand that primarily sell vacuum cleaners.

Video Godfreys

History

Godfrey Cohen founded the first Godfreys store in 1931 in Prahran, Melbourne. The business expanded within Australia as demand from customers increased after World War Two, and the product range grew from solely bagged vacuum cleaners to include steam mops, carpet shampooers and bagless vacuum cleaners over time. Godfreys was sold to private equity companies Pacific Equity Partners and CCMP Capital Asia for $350m in 2006. In 2012, the business underwent a major restructure to reduce debt by over 90% and replaced outgoing CEO Stephen Heath with industry veteran Tom Krulis.

The company was relisted on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2014 at $2.75 per share, but the share price fell to on $0.21 by April 2018. In April 2018, John Johnstone, who had first joined the company in 1936, was aged 99 and proposed a private takeover of the company. His family company already owned 28% of the shares.

Maps Godfreys

Company Structure

Godfreys consists of a combination of 212 company and franchise stores in Australia and New Zealand. In addition to their retail stores, Godfreys owns multiple vacuum service and repair centres across the two countries.

Brands

Godfreys currently holds the license to distribute Hoover brand vacuum cleaners in Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the Hoover brand, Godfreys also distributes the Wertheim brand of cleaning products in Australia, and recently have begun providing Lux products from Europe under the brand name Sauber due to name infringement issues with Lux Asia Pacific which is owned by Vorwerk.

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Advertising

Godfreys have obtained brand awareness in Australia and New Zealand through many years of similar television advertisements featuring John Hardy. The company was subject to an advertising complaint in 2006 around its use of the term 'Ship Hot' in its 2006 television commercials. The complaint was dismissed. In 2013 the owner of the Lismore store dressed as Kevin Rudd.

In November 2013 Godfreys withdrew a New Zealand advert following complaints of racism. The advert featured a white male wearing an "afro" style wig using terms such as ""aww hey Bro, this one's bigger than Kim Dotcom's chilly bin aye ... Godfreys heaps big sale ... Aww bro this one's bigger than Gerry Brownlee's undies aye ... Aww it's heaps big, choice." (mimicking a "lower class" person of M?ori or Pacific Island descent, as well as referencing the overweight politician Gerry Brownlee, and equally large media presence Kim Dotcom

99-year-old Godfreys co-founder launches takeover bid to take ...

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References