Alf Gooding’s brave initiative to establish a European consumer electronics empire to rival the Far Eastern giants is falling apart. Last month, contract electronics manufacturer Race Electronics Ltd, Talbot Green, near Cardiff in Wales, majority-owned by Gooding Group Ltd, called in the receiver (CI No 2,679) and now the French television manufacturing factory Gooding bought from Grundig AG in partnership with Dutchman Koen van Driel is in the hands of administrators. The plant, in Creutzwald, was acquired from Grundig last year for ú18.5m, and owes ú6.6m to suppliers. Gooding has already sold his satellite businesses to Grundig and disposed of another factory. It is a good factory with a good order book, but the truth is we have not managed to put proper funding in place, van Driel told Electronic Times. One of the key problems affecting the French plant is a worldwide shortage of cathode ray tubes – all those high-end home personal computers are eating the things up faster than they can be made. The shortage is expected to correct itself next year, but has forced the company to scale back by 35% its plans to make 750,000 sets in its first year. Thomson Consumer Electronics SA also refused to allow Gooding to use the Continental Edison brand name in France, and most of the output from the factory currently goes back to Grundig.
