Businessman best known for his role in the cut-price washing machine wars of the early 1960s
The entrepreneur John Bloom, who has died aged 87, drove a coach and horses through the complacency of the British retail trade in the 1960s, with cut-price washing machines, dishwashers, and eventually even package holidays. He transformed the way white goods were sold, through direct sales and by cutting out the middle men – not only the retailer but also the wholesaler – making him a multimillionaire by the age of 28. But he collided with both the law of diminishing returns and the law of the land, resulting in a fall as spectacular as his rise.
Bloom’s extraordinary business career began in the early 50s, when he was in the RAF. Initially based in Wiltshire, he and his comrades relied on a local coach company for transport to London on short-leave passes. Bloom had a friend in his native Hackney, east London, who ran a similar business, and the pair offered to undertake the work at half the price. Sued by the undercut contractor, Bloom won and was told by the judge: “It’s no sin to make a profit.” This became his mantra as well as the title of his 1971 book.
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