Eureka-Forbes Vacuum Cleaners: "Your Friend for Life."

[eurekaprince]

I have posted this on a thread about Eureka vacs in the Vintage Section, but figured it was interesting enough to duplicate here.

There is a large direct marketing company in India called "Eureka-Forbes." A large segment of their product line-up consists of vacuum cleaners! I see no indication that this company is in any way connected to the Eureka division of Electrolux in North America, and I even see no connection to Sweden's Electrolux itself. And yet they sell vacs labelled "Euroclean" and "Eureka-Forbes." Very strange indeed.....

Love their slogan by the way: "Eureka-Forbes: Your Friend for Life."

Here's a link, for those who are curious.....

http://www.eurekaforbes.com/vacuum-cleaners.aspx

 

[twocvbloke]

Can't help but notice the "Eureoclean ACE" vac, which bears a striking resemblance to some old European Electrolux cylinder cleaners...

http://www.eurekaforbes.com/vacuum-cleaners/euroclean-ace.aspx

 

[twocvbloke]

Like this one infact:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170615119987

 

[eurekaprince]

I think I just found the corporate umbrella organization beh

It's something called "Lux International" which seems to be a break-off company of Electrolux.

This "Lux International" door-to-door vac sales company must have some very interesting "copyright agreements" on file! Their website claims that Aerus of North America is also under their corporate structure!!! Weird!!!

Here's the link to Lux International:

http://www.luxinternational.com/around_the_world/

 

[aeoliandave]

In this day & age any consortium can order up a chinavac clone of a revered but defunct product, slap whatever brand they own the rights to on it...or make one up.

Just the way things are. Fascinating website Brian and well worth drilling down into, especially the 'Who We Are' and 'History' sections.

Long live genuine vintage vacuums for posterity, I say.

Dave

 

[eurekaprince]

And here is the key year that explains the birth of "Lux International" according to their website:

"1998
After many successful years as part of the Electrolux Group, Lux once again becomes independent.

The von der Becke-Family acquires the Lux Group from Electrolux. Lux International is founded with its headquarter in Zug, Switzerland."

I guess when they acquired the Lux Group, they bought the rights to the names "Euroclean" and "Eureka" too!!!!

 

[eurekaprince]

Here's the quote explaining the "partnership" they have with Aerus and Forbes:

"International Partnership Alliance
Lux International and its partner companies Eureka Forbes India, AMC Classic South Africa, Aerus Electrolux US and the Forbes Lux Group Switzerland today employ over 17'000 people in sales, administration, research and development. With a base of over 20 million customers Lux and its alliance partners promote some of the world's leading brands in direct sales. The Lux Partnership Alliance with its unique spirit and its focus on people and the direct sales of innovative products today runs sales operations in many parts of the world."

They do have a very cool canister vac at the core of their vac line-up....it's confidently called the "Lux Intelligence"! (Much prefer the Eureka name "Smartvac"!!!!)

Nice looking machine, I must say:

http://www.luxinternational.com/products/bright_home_line/lux_intelligence/

 

[eurekaprince]

"In this day & age any consortium can order up a chinavac clone of a revered but defunct product, slap whatever brand they own the rights to on it...or make one up."

It's so true Dave!

My mom often says to me something like: "Oh that iron is a Sunbeam, they make good irons so we should by it. We had a Sunbeam iron once that was wonderful....etc." And I have to explain to her that the name on the product means nothing these days......it has no relation to quality or corporate history or corporate integrity any more.

I guess I've become a "those were the good ol days" whining old fart at age 52!!!!!

 

[twocvbloke]

"I've become a "those were the good ol days"

I've become one and I'm only 25..... :S

I was born out of time me, I like the times when things were developing and you could do what you want without a nanny-state telling you how to live, eat, sleep & breathe, and there were new technologies coming out practically every day, and everything that was new on the shelves was genuinely new, not some rehashed old ideas bastardised into something they sell as "modern"... :S

Does that qualify as a whining old fart?

 

[eurekaprince]

Oh dear David - we should talk....I feel exactly the same way. I yearn for the old days when life was simpler and slower and things were done with care and pride.

I lived in Japan for a while, and as odd as their society may be to us westerners, Japan still has a culture of quality and pride in workmanship and pride in being a responsible member of society. That's why even this earthquake+tsunami+nuclear meltodown disaster is not causing any riots or looting. They are very responsible and respectable people. Maybe that's why their cars are so good - not to mention Panasonic vacuum cleaners.....