I am writing this piece as a personal bit of writing as I make no bones about it, seeing the introduction of a trade association that represents the diversity of the appliance repairs and independent sales of appliances is, for me, a bit of a Holy Grail. I am deeply passionate about the industry and have been since I was little more than a kid, merely a teenager and I was involved due to my father who was in the appliance repair business and the odd sale.

 From there stems the passion and the knowledge that the independent retailer and repairer offers people a far better service, value and honesty than any multiple retailer could ever offer. Even if they paid a king's ransom they could not engender the passion for service that the independents offer. Sure, they'll offer crazy deals and stupidly low prices but, at the end of the day, they can't match us for the personal service that we offer and, I doubt they ever will. One thing I know that they can't touch us on is integrity. We have that, many do not.

 In the year 2000 I personally got hacked off with the independent repair trade association, DASA and I thought that there had to be a better way to let people know that there was an alternative as well as letting people know that there actually were local businesses that care out there. DASA did not do a good job promoting this to people and, even when they did so, it was poorly done. Of course, there was a lot of politics involved that are industry related but in the end, I decided to go my own way.

 The result was UK Whitegoods .

UK Whitegoods grew from a simple mailing list and evolved into a website in 2003. From it's humble beginnings it has grown to notable worldwide attention and becoming, probably,one of the premier websites in the world devoted to domestic appliances. It is certainly one of the highest ranked in the world.

 Every single day it offers customers sound independent and impartial advice, totally free of charge by the people that repair appliances for a living.

In 2004 we formed what I suppose you could call a little "club" known as the subscribers. Basically, many of the repairers wanted to have some funding to help UK Whitegoods in what was trying to be accomplished, helping people with their appliances and various problems. That, little over three years ago, was the true start of the Whitegoods Trade Association although it wasn't formalised.

 Now it is.

It was agreed in 2007 that we needed an alternative to DASA that would promote the repairers  services, champion good service, honesty and let people know about it. So, in effect, this trade association is an extension of that work started in 2000 and a lifelong passion by myself and others in the industry to let people know that good, honest, local service does still exist in this modern age despite all attempts to kill it off.

 Kenneth Watt (July 2007)