Hygena

Early years The Hygena Cabinet Co. Ltd was established in 1925 in Liverpool by George Nunn and Len Cooklin, to make a variety of the then popular Hoosier cabinets. As the Hoosier dwindled in popularity, so did the company's sales, resulting in the company's going bankrupt in 1938. Bought up by new investors, The design team realised that the post-War austerity period was over, and the 1950s kitchen needed to be bright, colourful and modern, influenced from contemporary American ideals of domesticity and good living. Pre-war English Rose kitchens had been the living ideal, but with wood in short supply, Aluminium became the material of choice. This promoted a clean fresh image, which helped to also announce a new beginning post-War. Worksurfaces were most often created in Formica, which available in a series of colours all with wipe-clean surfaces, reduced the amount of labour needed to prepare food. 1950s kitchens also often incorporated rounded shelves at the end of the units providing extra storage and a useful location for the bakelite radio. With much British manufacturing production still managed through standards defined by the MoW in the form of the newly launched British Standard, the first new Hygena kitchen range of the 1950s was the BU, available in cream or cream and green. But the mid-1950s F range was the company's first fully prefabricated kitchen, combining wall units with sliding doors, built-in sinks and larders with clear plastic storage bins. But the key to the F range was the accessibility of its style at a cheap price, with the most popular of the huge colour range choice being red tops, blue doors and white draws. 1960s However, the 1960s changed that, with Hygena and Allied Iron Foundries in their Leisure Lineline range introducing the wider use of Formica. Until this point, kitchens were either made of metal, and hence polished, or wood and hence needed to be painted. The introduction of formica meant that no longer was there a need to paint or repaint your "new" kitchen, just use it. Secondly, formica was easy clean, and although most new houses incorporated a serving hatch between kitchen and dining room, more and more families were adopting to the American kitchen diner concept. MFI took full control of Hygena in 1987, buying Healey out for £200 million, it sat alongside MFI other well known household brands as the economy choice. and relaunched through those chains. Purchase by Sainsbury's In April 2016, Home Retail Group agreed to a £1.4bn takeover by UK retailer Sainsbury's, including the UK and Irish rights and the sole use of the Hygena brand. The acquisition completed on 2 September 2016. ==Operations==

Current operations The Hygena brand is now owned by Sainsbury's and its products were formerly sold in the United Kingdom through Argos stores and the Argos website. As of September 2022, no products are sold by Sainsbury's or Argos under the Hygena brand, which can therefore be considered dormant in the UK. Former operations Hygena at Currys In 2000, MFI announced a concession with Currys plc, allowing the development of the sub-brand Hygena at Currys within Currys electrical retail stores. The furniture products sold were identical to those of MFI, however rebranded to distinguish the two companies, and usually sold at a vastly discounted price to offset competition from Howden Joinery and MFI itself. Currys benefited and made profit from appliance sales associated with the sale of a kitchen, and increased product knowledge from specialist staff. There were 130+ concessions found in Currys stores throughout the UK. But the concession suffered from particularly poor publicity, with marketing funds used entirely for MFI's own advertising and the refusal of DSG to include the brand in their own Currys campaigns. Therefore, Hygena at Currys relied almost entirely on word of mouth marketing. On 10 May 2005 it was decided by mutual agreement to end the partnership, with the final stores closing in October 2005. Every Currys store that had previously contained 'Hygena at Currys' showroom underwent a substantial refit as part of the Kestrel Refit Programme, at the cost of MFI (rumoured in excess of £5m), to restore the floorspace to its previous state. Hygena at Homebase Following the 2016 sale of Homebase to Wesfarmers, all Hygena branding will be removed from both the Homebase stores and the Homebase website in mid 2017 when the agreement with Home Retail Group Expires. International operations In 2006, MFI sold the successful Hygena operations in France and the rest of Europe to Swedish kitchen retailer Nobia for SEK 1,255 million (EUR 135 million). The sale included the 138 wholly owned stores in its French network, the Lille headquarters of MFI's mainland European operations, and use of the Hygena brand within Europe excluding the UK. Nobia sold the international rights to the brand to Groupe Fournier in 2015 for €20 million, who replaced it with its own SoCoo'c brand over the next 18 months. This gave Sainsbury's the sole use of the Hygena brand name. ==References==