By James Wells

SYDNEY: A seasonal products executive has assured retailers that this cool weather will not last and that it is important to manage inventory in the cooling category before summer starts at the end of next week.

Major Electrical Appliances (MEA) seasonal products category manager, Kelly Stewart, told Current.com.au that forecasts are for much warmer weather.

"While there has been a lot of cool weather recently, it will get hot. There are predictions for a lot of heat over the coming months," Stewart said.

MEA is now only selling seasonal products under the Omega Altise brand after handing over the Dimplex rights to Glen Dimplex Australia in August following the heating sell-in period.

“We managed the Dimplex brand for 10 years and following the transition we have been able to improve on our product range while maintaining quality and style,” Stewart said.

“We have been very happy with the response to our brand and product range this year and we have a number of key accounts that have maintained their business with us and experienced growth with other accounts.

“Traditionally we have an early sell-in so we made sure we had stock here early to get stock on the floor for the start of the season.”

Hero products for Omega include the Opal Mini air purifier, Ava Pearle evaporative cooler featuring a new cyclonic water vapourisation system and two tower fans; the AE Digi Tower and the AE Noir Tower.

“The market is rally moving towards tower fans. GfK figures show it is a growth area for the cooling category, also I think people are looking for products with better specifications and style. People are being choosy about what they buy, but all of our top end products are doing well such as our glass pedestal fans and chrome series pedestal fans. There is always a place for price driven product, but in these economically sensitive times, consumers are also more conscious about what they are getting for their money,” Stewart said.

“Our portable range has been particularly successful and we expect to see further sell in from early December.”