The Rarity Of The Hoover Telios

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fromadifferentplanet1996

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Jun 17, 2025
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I have reason to believe that the Hoover Telios is a rare machine in North America...why is that? I know it was sold at Kmart as the Runabout. It's a bygone era of when Maytag owned Hoover, before TTi stepped in.

There's not much videos on Youtube of the North American model. I could see the machine being useful in small apartments or big houses with no carpets...if bags were not a PITFA to find.

Does anyone know what years Hoover began and ended production of the North American Telios, alongside why production ended other than TTi getting involved?
 
Hoover also sold an orange straight-suction bagged canister, the S1361. Very much from the Maytag era of Hoover and does make sense in small living spaces or big houses with zero carpeting.
 
I would buy one. It just seems that the US got very different machines from everywhere else.
When old man Hoover was still alive and it was a family owned company they produced a lot of the same model vacuums globally. Not 100% because you had models like the French made Sensotronic canisters that for the most part never saw the light of day in North America, but most of the Hoover line was shared across continents. Hoover had production in the US, UK, France and Australia. When old man Hoover died the family sold the company off in chunks. Maytag bought the US side. Candy SpA of Italy bought the European side and the Australian side kind of died but Godfreys at some point bought the rights to the Hoover name in Australia and New Zealand.
Maytag kept making Hoovers in the US but about a year or so after Maytag bought Hoover in the US, Whirlpool bought Maytag and not long afterwards sold Hoover to TTI. After that all three markets, North America, Europe and Oz had different companies making completely different vacuums under the Hoover brand name. More recently Haier bought Candy Group and now own the rights to the Hoover brand name in Europe. Godfrey's has gone out of business in Oz so who knows what happens to the Hoover brand down under? Time will tell.
 
One can still buy a Hoover vacuum in New Zealand. We now have Godfreys in Australia. I New Zealand there is a complicated story that is partly internal so cannot be shared with me, however the end result was About Clean and Vacdirect.
Godfrey's closed all their stores last summer. Bankrupt and no buyers.
 
According to the Dunedin Vacdirect store owner Godfreys closed down to restructure and to screw over the franchise stores. Some Godfreys stores were company owned while others were franchise stores. I am not really sure if the franchise stores organized to About Clean and the company owned ones organized to Vacdirect. Or vice-versa. I am not really sure what happened. It was all very recent so I suspect that I am not allowed to know some details.


https://www.godfreys.com.au/?srsltid=AfmBOooQj0C2s56AmvxRFBSThTK7Qmfz1qvaRulZf9HXsKcjYWbAfsKF

https://www.aboutclean.com/en-nz?ut...hwEj-asXlCfbdINjgMidG4QZC66JDSjAaAsz3EALw_wcB

https://vacdirect.co.nz/
 
According to the Dunedin Vacdirect store owner Godfreys closed down to restructure and to screw over the franchise stores. Some Godfreys stores were company owned while others were franchise stores. I am not really sure if the franchise stores organized to About Clean and the company owned ones organized to Vacdirect. Or vice-versa. I am not really sure what happened. It was all very recent so I suspect that I am not allowed to know some details.


https://www.godfreys.com.au/?srsltid=AfmBOooQj0C2s56AmvxRFBSThTK7Qmfz1qvaRulZf9HXsKcjYWbAfsKF

https://www.aboutclean.com/en-nz?ut...hwEj-asXlCfbdINjgMidG4QZC66JDSjAaAsz3EALw_wcB

https://vacdirect.co.nz/
So I did a little reading and apparently an appliance wholesaler called Tempo based in Australia now owns the distribution rights to the Hoover brand down under. Godfrey's brand and assets were acquired by a company called Future Innovations Holdings and they have re-opened Godfrey's on-line and wholesale business. The franchises were picked up by About Clean. Have to do some more studying to see who owns the Wertheim brand name. I thought Godfrey's owned the rights to Sauber, Wertheim and Hoover but it seems I am probably mistaken. Nothing new there : / I see some websites claiming TTI owns Hoover in Australia. Someone else can chime in here.

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/retailer-returns-collapse-034428003.html
 

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