By Patrick Avenell in Melbourne
MELBOURNE, VIC: Inside around 45 per cent of all vacuum cleaners in Australia is a bag to collect all the dirt, dust and hair that has been sucked up from the floor. But most of these bags are not from the same manufacturer as the vacuum itself. In fact, most of these bags are supplied by a rival floorcare specialist.
Electrolux Floor Care is the local supplier for the Menalux brand of post-sale vacuum cleaner accessories, including bags, belts and filters. This range uses colour coding and labelling to help consumers find the right accessory for their vacuum cleaner, no matter what brand it is. For example, a consumer can buy a Menalux bag for their Miele, Dirt Devil or Bosch vacuum.
Electrolux Floor Care marketing manager Julian Huitfeldt said this category-within-a-category has been a profit spinner for both the supplier and retailers.
“The beauty of this range is, it’s a great profit driver for us and retailers as well,” he said.
“The unique thing we love about vacuum cleaners is they need an ongoing consumable in bagless to keep running, be it a bag or a filter. This is one of the few things in smalls that gets people in stores repetitively over the life of that product, and we’re really the only supplier that has something quite as unique and user-friendly as this, which is our Menalux colour system range.”
Huitfeldt said the Menalux range currently has wide distribution through the Good Guys, Retravision, Betta Electrical and Harvey Norman.
John Mahar, who is the managing director of Electrolux Floor Care, said that having this range enables retailers to better serve their customers through the lifetime of the product.
“This is about the looking after the consumer. The consumer wants bags that may or may not be supported by the brand owner, or the person who sold the product, for whatever reason, and this is making sure the consumer can get what they want when they want, that’s the key to this business.”