A quick post to give you the heads up on 2 interesting TV segments that you can watch online. Firstly (and thanks to Mark Reid for this one), Ian Cheshire, CEO of B&Q, Europe’s largest home improvement company, on his company’s decision to begin producing and selling wind and solar equipment. The segment is about 23 mins long. The interesting thing about this is to hear the CEO of a major global company discuss how he and B&Q see demand for clean products evolve over the next few years. It’s a good reminder that it’s not only small start-ups that are looking hard at this space. You can view the interview with Ian Cheshire on BBC’s Business Hardtalk here (I’m not sure how long the link will be valid for). The second thing I saw yesterday is a segment on RailPower Tech [TSE:P], a company on which I wrote a couple of days ago. RailPower was discussed on Stars & Dogs, an evening show on the Canadian business channel Report on Business Television (ROB TV). To view it, go to ROB TV’s Thursday page and scroll down to Stars & Dogs at 6:00 PM ET. This link will be good for a week. The part on RailPower is about 10 minutes in, after the 1st commercial break. Bad news for RailPower shareholders: the anchors call it a “dog”, citing liquidity and execution problems. Happy viewing!
The interesting thing I picked up was that the “clean technologies” described (in their consumer products), when Ian Cheshire was quized, he didn’t seem to see them limited to Wind and Photovoltaics… this seemed to note a long term change in their business strategy. Sounds like they’re after a full range of such products – and aim to be positioning themselves to take advantage of this “new market”.
Also interesting to note that 12 months ago B&Q were struggling in their traditional markets. Such doom and gloom seems to have diminished recently. Has this new embrace of “green products” re-envigourated their business?
I believe so…