Member Article

Ovenu Avoids Usual ‘World Cup’ Effect Thanks to Christmas Draw

Rik Hellewell, the founder and managing director of oven cleaning franchise Ovenu, isn’t expecting too much of a World Cup bounce following England’s exit and Argentina’s dramatic victory in the finals.

Normally, the nation’s attention is averted from normal domestic tasks during a major tournament but the shift in staging FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 from summer to winter seems to have curbed normal consumer behaviour.

He said: “During previous World Cups and European Championships, our Ovenu franchisees would expect to see a fall-off in bookings, followed by a sudden increase once England were on the plane back home.

“However, due to the competition being held in November and December this year to avoid the worst of the desert heat, it seems that not even a World Cup trumps Christmas!”

Rik, who founded Ovenu more than 30 years ago, expects that, despite the thrilling final in which Lionel Messi lifted the trophy following Argentina’s penalty shoot-out win over France, the attention of most England fans has long-since switched to more domestic matters.

“The run up to Christmas is always one of our busiest times of the year and this seems largely unchanged, despite the diversions in Qatar,” he added.

“So far, our franchisees are reporting largely full order books both this month and into the start of January, so the normal ‘World Cup’ effect on business seems minimal. “England going out of the competition at the quarter finals stage may have prompted a slight lift in additional enquiries but nothing like it would have had it been held in the summer.

“Traditionally, our clients want their ovens returning to near showroom condition in anticipation of all the extra cooking and baking taking place over the festive period, while some clients opt to wait until January before calling on our services.

“Many of them will have continued watching the rest of the competition, but I think their focus was preparing for the season’s festivities.

“It’s also been reported that there hasn’t been the usual boom in television sales that usually precedes a summer World Cup. It’s likely people only have so much of a budget with Christmas being so close – so any non-essential spending swiftly received the red card!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by News Gathering .