What ho one and all,

I don't know how to add multiple photos to one post so will have to add them individually.

Browsing my local DIY store and looking at my favourite tool, plunge saws.

McAlister and Ebauer. As far as I can see, they come from the same factory, every screw, moulding shape is the same, just different coloured plastic and but priced £110 and £160.

Interestingly, both have a plastic locking tab and in both cases, it was broken. And these have not even been used in the work environment.

I don't need one (have a Makita) but cannot see what one gets for the £50 extra.

Broken locking tab; same on both saws.

Whatever the differences, they are minimal and based upon all the plastic and base, they have almost certainly come from the same factory. Or different factories but the same moulds.

Macallister and Erbauer are the in-house own-brands of B&Q/Screwfix/TradePoint/Castorama, who collectively are the trading brands of the Kingfisher group. It would be surprising if they didn't share design/manufacturing across their different brands, the whole point of an integrated group like that is to have economies of scale across different market segments.

Think of it like Audi/VW/Skoda/Seat - built with the same parts, similar features and power, but priced differently, to appeal to different parts of the market. Some people will choose a Skoda because it's like an Audi but £10k cheaper, and others will choose the Audi for the same reason. Perhaps fair to say that MacA is the Skoda version, and Erbauer is more of a Seat level brand?

I've had some success buying cheap own-brand saws and then fitting better blades.

Posted By: Peter_in_HungaryI believe it is called Badge Engineering.

That's generally where the similarities are even closer - literally just changing badges in the ultimate.