User talk:Garyrawlinson54

Howden Joinery
Greeting, I was reviewing the history over at Howden Joinery and discovered that you made a significant amount of data removal from the article. That has caught the attention of several other editors. Can you help me understand why that information was removed. Also can you help clarify if you have a specific conflict of interest on this topic since you appear to only edit on articles relating to Howden Joinery and MFI Group. While you are welcome to contribute to article which you have a specific interest in, please be sure to work collaboratively with other editors when there is disagreement. Please participate in the Talk:Howden Joinery page with other editors regarding your edits. Of course you're still welcome to be bold in your edits, but part of that requires discussing changes which other editors disagree with. Thank you, Tiggerjay (talk) 19:27, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

I must first declare that I am an employee of Howden Joinery Group. At the time of making previous edits, I was not aware of the need to make this clear, especially as I believe the edits were all factual. I now realise that I should have acknowledged this and will do so henceforth. Also, apart from factual changes that might be required in future, such as appending new financial results, I will engage in a dialogue with others over any changes I propose be made.

The content I deleted recently related to the history of the MFI business and the MFI Group, and is all detailed on the MFI Group page (i.e. details of founders of MFI retail business and sale to MEP in 2006). Howden's relationship to what was MFI Group is made clear and a link to this page is provided. Garyrawlinson54 (talk) 15:57, 17 December 2012 (UTC)gary.rawlinson54


 * Please note that as an employee of the company you should not have made any changes to the article and under WP:COI you should not make any changes going forward. Quite apart from this, I have difficulty understanding the changes you have made as my understanding is that MFI became Galiform and then Galiform became Howden Joinery Group. Nevertheless I have adjusted the text so it is now clear that Howden Joinery only started life in 1995. Dormskirk (talk) 22:22, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

HOWDEN JOINERY - PROPOSED EDIT BY CONNECTED PERSON
The current entry for Howden Joinery contains inaccuracies and one of the items discussed is incomplete and misleading. I would propose to amend the Introduction and History sections as follows during w/b 24 June.

Howden Joinery Goup Plc (LSE: HWDN) - the Group - is listed on the London Stock Exchnage and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The Group is the owner of the Howdens Joinery business (Howdens), a leading supplier of kitchens and joinery products to small builders.

History

Howdens was established in 1995 as a business unit within MFI Furniture Group Plc (MFI).

In October 2006, MFI sold its loss making MFI retail business to Merchant Equity Partners for £1, while retaining Howdens. At the same time, the name of MFI was changed to Galiform Plc (Galiform).

In November 2008, the MFI retail business entered administration, Galiform becoming liable for the costs associated with 46 MFI stores. An exceptional charge of £99.7m was incurred in 2008 to cover these costs. At this stage, Galiform was liable for the costs of over 80 properties previously used by MFI (the legacy properties). By the end of 2012, the legacy properties had been reduced by over 80%, mainly due to landlords agreeing to the early termination of the associated leases in return for a one-off payment.

In September 2010, Galiform changed its name to Howden Joinery Group Plc.

Garyrawlinson54 (talk) 14:31, 22 May 2013 (UTC)
 * A couple of points (i) as a company employee you should not be making any changes: please read WP:COI (ii) notwithstanding this I have made the changes for you adding sources as required by WP:SOURCE. I hope you are OK with this. Best wishes. Dormskirk (talk) 22:20, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

As I understand the rules for Wiki,there is nothing to stop a person from a company making changes, providing they do not create a COI and they make it clear that they are a connected person.

That said, I am happy for you to make these changes.

However, the changes as you have made them still leave inaccuracies in the article, as follows:

You need to differentiate between the Group - Howden Joinery Group Plc - and the trading business which is owned by the Group (Howdens Joinery), hence why it is important to say that the Group owns the Howdens Joinery business. It is this trading business which supplies kitchens and joinery products to small builders, not the Group. Also, it was Howdens Joinery that was established as a business unit within MFI in 1995, not Howden Joinery.

When you use 'shorthands', the article should define these e.g. Howden Joinery Group Plc (the Group, MFI Furniture Group Plc (MFI), Howdens Joinery (Howdens), Galiform Plc (Gailform).

Finally, there is a small typographical error in the final para of the artcile. This should say Howdens' kitchens are manufactured .....

If you would like to talk to me in person about this, I can be reached on 0044 207 535 1127

Garyrawlinson54 (talk) 10:52, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I have re-read WP:COI and at the very least it says that employees are "very strongly discouraged" from editing articles. Therefore I feel very uncomfortable about accepting such specific requests from you to edit the article when wiki articles are intended to be independent of what the company says. That said I think that I have picked up most (if not all) of your points. I do think that defining the top entity as "The Group" is a bit clumsy so I have avoided it. Best wishes. Dormskirk (talk) 21:16, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

I'm ok with not using Group as the article stands.

Your description of Howden Joinery Group as a holding company is somewhat strange. Most plc's will have a structure similar to ours, where you have the plc and a number of separate entities that make up the business.

The common usage of a holding company is for a conglomerate that owns a number of separate and distinct operating businesses. For example, you could rightly describe Nobia as a holding company - its owns a number of totally separate kitchen companies,all of which trade under different names and have been acquired at different times e.g. Magnet, Hygena, Poggenpohl, etc. Berkshire Hathaway is an even better example.

In our case, both Howdens and Houdan Menuiseries have been set up by ourselves, the name Houdain being used in France as we thought it appropriate to have a local sounding name.

Garyrawlinson54 (talk) 08:29, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I have changed it to "parent company". Does that work better? Dormskirk (talk) 22:12, 24 May 2013 (UTC)