I’ve enjoyed an interesting trip this week to the IFA exhibition in Berlin, which has traditionally been seen as an electronics fair but which is now attracting increasing numbers of exhibitors from the kitchen appliances sector. That doesn’t surprise me, as with the incredible technology now being incorporated into many new appliances, they are becoming less like the ‘ordinary household appliances’ that cater for our basic needs and more like communications hubs/personal assistants, chefs, hygiene officers, personal shoppers (and I won’t go on, but I’m sure that if you keep up to date with the technology, you’ll know what I mean – and if you don’t, you can read all about it in these pages over the coming weeks)!

I joined a group of international journalists who were treated to an in-depth look at lots of beautifully designed and incredibly ‘intelligent’ new products from the growing portfolio of brands under the Whirlpool Corporation’s umbrella, which are marketed in more than 170 countries.

But of course the question on everyone’s lips was: “What’s happening about Aga Rangemaster?”

We’d all thought that the £129.2 million takeover of iconic British brand Aga Rangemaster, by Middleby Corporation, was all done and dusted (see aga_rangemaster_sold_to_us_kitchen_products_specialist) and about to complete, but Whirlpool has come in with a last minute cash offer which, we were told, is under consideration. And although Whirlpool wasn’t sharing information on the offer it has made, the word in the City is that it would have to have been at least 10% higher than the Middleby offer to have even been considered – and Aga Rangemaster shares have risen sharply as a result.

Whirlpool is meeting with the company’s shareholders on 8thSeptember and a deadline for a final decision to be made, has been set for 14th September. Meanwhile, Aga Rangemaster is continuing to push the Middleby deal through, to ensure that market confidence remains high.

Exciting times, eh? We’ll be bringing you more on this breaking news in next week’s issue of KBzine...

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Yours,

Jan Hobbs