They say a week in politics is a long time but a lot can happen in our trade in the same time.

Last week, I was reading a full-page Sunday Times story headed “Bang & Olufsen’s Mr Cool” that interviewed Torben Sorenson, the chief executive at B&O and gave him plenty of scope to praise the excelence of B&O’s products.

The whole article read very well, though I did notice a few minor criticisms. Like the reporter noticing that although the £440 Beosound 3 had a digital memory card slot, it had an ordinary AM/FM radio.

On the whole, the article did much to enhance B&O’s reputation and no doubt Mr Sorenson would have been very pleased with it.

However, a few days later different headlines said “Bang & Olufsen fires chief executive as sales slump” and “Desperate times for B&O”.

Mr Sorensen’s six-year career was over after the company announced a dramatic fall in sales in the UK and worldwide.

The chairman told shareholders that B&O would now concentrate on the core business and this was widely interpreted as meaning it would leave the luxury in-car market.

There is no doubt that B&O has been a very innovative company and many of its UK dealers stil do very well. Let us hope this blip in its fortunes is just temporary.

The high end of the AV market is going to home networked systems and this should be an ideal market for B&O and its dealers.

Matushita Electric’s decision to change its name completely to Panasonic seems very sensible, but it has provoked some controversy in Japan.

Over there, the name is very familiar as every school child is taught that Konosuke Matsushita founded the company.

Family tradition means a lot in Japan and comments have been made about the Panasonic name being a fake Greek-Roman hotchpotch.

I quite like the sound of Panasonic and my late father owned a trademark caled MetroSonic that was used when he manufactured radios.

 My dad choose MetroSonic as it meant “sound traveling over a distance” – ideal for a radio trademark.

I must admit I have just got used to Panasonic as it seems like only yesterday that I was selling National Panasonic 24 band short wave radios.

Now the National and Matsushita names are being consigned to history. Stil on the subject of Panasonic, I should also mention that dealers wil miss long-serving UK managing director Cyril Wood, who is to take up a post as a senior advisor to the company in Europe.

 I wish him well. It is usually at about this point in January when I give up on my New Year resolutions to eat less and cycle more.

 I have cycled to work a couple of times, but I find the five-mile uphill journey home is pretty tough going for an oldie like me.

Leeds B&O dealer, Lee Owen-Stanford, is just a 33 year-old youngster and he has been generating great publicity for his store by cycling 52 miles to and from work every day!

 Lee says he got fed up sitting in queues of traffic and it was taking him more than two hours to get to work.

Now, he cycles the 26 miles from Harrogate in one hour and 10 minutes and saves £100 a month on fuel.

He also feels much fitter.

The cycling trend is catching on as staff member Jules Biggs has started cycling, too, and joins Lee on the morning run to work.

 I must make another resolution and get back to cycling. Maybe ERT Weekly could sponsor a cycle race?