T G Jones?

[Buenchico]

It's not exactly the snappiest of trading names, is it? I wonder how much they paid some consultancy to come up with it?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj3n3en7gppo

 

If I was an employee of WHS/TGJ, I wouldn't be too optimistic about the long-term chances of keeping my job when the business has just been taken over by a company whose only previous experience in the retail sector appears to have been in running Ted Baker (which has now disappeared from the High Street) and Hobbycraft (which saw an 80% fall in its profits last year).

[barry1010]

Smith's is hardly an exciting name but it didn't hold the company back

[Buenchico]

^^^ It's been floundering (and rightly so, in my opinion) on the High Street for several decades now though, Barry.  [It's only outlets in travel hubs that have kept the business alive].

[Old_Geezer]

Perhaps because it grew organically at a time when small shops expanding into major chains were a profitable thing. Gaining a load of stores that another feels they need to shed, and rebranding them something appearing as a long cherished local store, but which few will have heard of, is not really the same thing.

 

But we'll see.

[barry1010]

Alas, Smith & Jones

Can't remember the last time I went in WH Smiths, although I did shop in WH Smiffs in Nerja 

[tomus42]

//If I was an employee of WHS/TGJ, I wouldn't be too optimistic //

I'd be more optimistic about staying employed with a job offer, than I would with a redundancy notice.

[tomus42]

Alias WHSmith and TGJones.

The two most wanted outlaws in the history of the west. But in all the trains and banks they robbed, they never shot anyone. This made them very popular. With everyone but the railroads and the banks.

[Ellipsis]

Why would they have got rid of a famous brand name like WH Smith, and replaced it, not with something special, but with the similar yet unknown TG Jones ... 🤡

[tomus42]

Legal reasons probably. Once you say WHSmith has gone bust you can't very well keep it trading under the same name. You have to look at 1970s cowboy shows for an alternative.

[Buenchico]

^^^ I'm guessing, Ellipsis, that the new owners might want to change the range of goods that will be sold in the former W H Smith stores.  If, for example, they want to use the stores partially as off-shoots of their Hobbycraft business, they might not want people to think of the stores primarily as bookshops or newsagents but as somewhere to purchase their hobby supplies.  (I still think that they could have come up with a better name though!)

[tomus42]

Starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy.

[Canary42]

This reminds me of when I worked for WHS many years ago (late 70s) at their retail distribution centre which included a warehouse with much modern automation which attracted attention commercially.  I worked with an ex-PR guy who was always commandered to show people round and one day when showing a group round he pointed to the then new logo and made a less-than-complimentary remark - whereupon one of the party said, "We designed that".  

[Buenchico]

>>> "Once you say WHSmith has gone bust . . . "

W H Smith hasn't gone bust.  The travel hub side of the business (in airports, railway stations, etc) is thriving.

Further, it's not at all unusual when a company is bought out of administration for the new owners to continue using the old name anyway.  (e.g. when Patisserie Valerie collapsed into administration it was then subjected to a management buyout, keeping the trading name intact).

[Ellipsis]

They could have called it Cole Porter ...

[barry1010]

The brand name is an asset and is often bought when a company goes bust.

Today's Debenhams has no connection with the department store that used to be on the high street.

[drmorgans]

 

£76 million for chain of shops with falling sales and a brand you're not going to use seems a lot of moola to me.

Apparently TG Jones was a footballer, or a north Wales haulage company. Not exactly zingy though is it?

 

[barry1010]

As an aside I'm disappointed nobody remarked on my Alas Smith & Jones reference.

Brilliant comedy pairing

[Khandro]

What irritated me about WHS was putting their name on so many of the items they sell.  I don't want to do their advertising by showing the world I bought my pencil or whatever from them.

[drmorgans]

 

 

And yet we all wander around in our "sports casual", Fred Perry polos, Adidas trainers, Sergio Tacchini tracksuit.

 

No, me neither.

 

[barry1010]

That's brought back a memory long forgotten - a set of pencils I had when I were a boy, with my name stamped in gold.

[Jonathan-Joe]

W H Smith is continuing trading with stores at airports, railway stations and hospitals so is keeping the familiar brand name for these.