'Which?' goes into mail-order business

THE CONSUMERS' Association, Britain's defender of consumer rights, is branching out into selling the products it recommends, to support its campaigning work.

The 770,000 members of the association are to be offered the services of Value Direct, a company which claims to offer consumer goods at "lower than high-street" prices.

It promises to refund 110 per cent of the difference if anyone can find its products cheaper elsewhere.

Andrew Fisher, a spokesman for the association, said the deal in no way compromised the advice that thousands of consumers have come to rely on as impartial. "We don't take money from government or industry. We do not benefit from this arrangement at all," Mr Fisher said.

The Consumers' Association is a not-for-profit organisation which funds its testings and campaigns from the sales of Which? magazine and books, published by its commercial arm.

Subscribers pay about pounds 60 a year to receive the magazine's advice on goods and services. Like many charitable bodies, it now also offers a Consumers' Association credit card, which gives 5 per cent of monies paid towards the association's work.

Value Direct, which is already available to other membership organisations and offers many Which? recommended best-buys, would be another benefit for subscribers, Mr Fisher said. "If people pay pounds 60 a year, why shouldn't they benefit? Value Direct is a supplier which can offer prices considerably cheaper than the major suppliers."

But Mr Fisher said the association was not telling members they should buy only from Value Direct; it still recommended shopping around, and, if a product was cheaper at Dixons or Comet, the customer should buy there.

Mr Fisher said the Consumers' Association relied on its commercial activities - such as the sale of its Which? guides to divorce, hotels and food - to fund its other work.

"But one can't operate without the other. All the profit goes into running the organisation. It's how we test the washing machines and campaign on transport and health and freedom of information. We have no shareholders."

Members could already ring its consumer centre for details of where recommended goods were available, so the mail-order service was an extension of that, he added.

Value Direct boasts more than 4,500 items, delivered free within seven days. Prices include pounds 169.95 for a Dyson upright vacuum cleaner and pounds 289.95 for a Siemens dishwasher.