Back from the dead

Talk about Lazarus with a triple by-pass. News reports this morning suggest the Kleenmaid brand is set to be resurrected in the next few months, less than a year after the company collapsed into liquidation in one of the most spectacular collapses of the GFC.

Believe it or not, but it seems that small private equity group Compass Capital, which bought Kleenmaid’s intellectual property (including the brand and logo) from the receivers last year, seriously want to relaunch this brand.

According to reports, they’ve even brought in company founder Andrew Young – who took plenty of flak around the time the company fell over – as a consultant.

My first reaction to this was one of amazement – they couldn’t, could they?

But as more stories have trickled out, it seems Compass is really going to give it a go. But could it seriously work?

While the company’s reputation received a thrashing following the collapse, it’s worth remembering that at the time it went under there were 6,000 eager customers waiting on their goods – which could be taken as a sign that the products themselves apparently were pretty good, even if the company that sold them wasn’t.

Kleenmaid also had a strong network of repair and service franchisees, who presumably also enjoyed a good reputation.

If the new owners could emphasise this quality and service angle of the brand, and perhaps roll out a cheeky “we’re back” marketing campaign, the whole venture might stand a chance…

Who am I kidding? In the end, I think it will be just too much to erase the fact that Kleenmaid remains the subject of an investigation by ASIC.

Surely if the new owners thought there was a gap in the appliance market, they could have dreamt up a European-sounding name (punters love European kitchen appliances) and made a clear break with the past.

Resurrecting this dead duck just looks too hard.