If you read the history of Asda on Wikipedia, it says there nearly went bankrupt before Archie Norman took over as boss and they then sold out to Wal-mart, once he had turned it round.
Debt is only a problem if you can’t make the re-payments, time will tell.
This story was first posted around a year ago 
Conor:
toonsy:
They’ll be paying very low interest on whatwer they’re borrowing. I can’t see interest rates going up by much any time soon and in that time you’d like to think that a safe as houses company (ie food) will continue to make enough to pay down their exposure over the longer term.Sure about that? Stobarts borrowed £55m at an APR of 18% less than 2 years ago.
That’s like comparing a credit card interest rate of person A with a rubbish credit rating with loads of defaults to person B with a good credit rating and very little debt to their name. Of course person B would get interest rates and offers Person A could only dream of! Not a good comparison.
Fuzrat:
As far as I am aware it is a sell for capital/lease back on the land and warehouses only. Everything being released so far has been about keeping in house where it is in house at the moment (Donny for instance is a Wincanton site). Only thing possibly going (apart from the petrol stations, which we all knew would get swallowed) is George clothing, for some reason they really dont want that bit of the business.As ever, no one will really know until it happens.
Can’t understand why they’re getting rid of George I thought it was doing well !! I am gutted about the sharesave going it was a fantastic earner.
Truckerian99:
With that level of borrowing the only thing I’d be concerned about is the pension scheme, if you’re in it. Royal Mail pensions took big hit when they sold it off many moons ago (drop of 25-30% on final salary numbers for some).
I had an interview at Asda last week and spoke to a driver who’s been there 20 years. He said the pension is crap, so much so that many of them don’t bother paying into it and instead take advantage of the share scheme, which the new owners ARE taking away.
dozy:
Does anyone actually buy clothes from Asda , I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing the crap they sell , food isn’t any better , awful place
Stupid question by an obviously stupid twunt
I wonder how many old school firms that there is now days with money on their hip. Don’t lease or borrow, buy may be a couple of motors etc each year out right and actually own what they have.
Odd days:
I wonder how many old school firms that there is now days with money on their hip. Don’t lease or borrow, buy may be a couple of motors etc each year out right and actually own what they have.
The firm I’m going to in a few weeks do exactly that, buy them outright…
Odd days:
I wonder how many old school firms that there is now days with money on their hip. Don’t lease or borrow, buy may be a couple of motors etc each year out right and actually own what they have.
Neill and Brown.
All Vehicles and trailers are bought and not leased.
Still privately owned after 104 years.
bald bloke:
Fuzrat:
As far as I am aware it is a sell for capital/lease back on the land and warehouses only. Everything being released so far has been about keeping in house where it is in house at the moment (Donny for instance is a Wincanton site). Only thing possibly going (apart from the petrol stations, which we all knew would get swallowed) is George clothing, for some reason they really dont want that bit of the business.As ever, no one will really know until it happens.
Can’t understand why they’re getting rid of George I thought it was doing well !! I am gutted about the sharesave going it was a fantastic earner.
Its doing very well, same reason to get rid of the depots and lease back, quick cash injection. I’m so looking forward to the milk rounds of a dozen petrol stations in a day 
adam277:
toonsy:
Weren’t Stobarts very publicly in the “we need money or we fold” category?Yep.
The pandemic really helped them out. Massive need for trucks and storage due to lockdowns.Im not happy about this takeover.
They will sell everything off they can.
No doubt will tupe over aload of workers as well to some onsite agency.
bbc.co.uk/news/business-56185236
Cutting and selling everything off they can.
Ah well…
adam277:
bbc.co.uk/news/business-56185236Cutting and selling everything off they can.
Ah well…
It does seem odd to me that the online only sites may go, given that home delivery is booming, you would think that somewhere back in time it would have been worked out that dedicated home delivery hubs are better else why set them up…
They havent made money since they opened apparently, even with the rise in home shopping due to Covid. We only put maybe 3 trucks of ambient into Heston a day, more or less the same as a standard superstore. Its a massive expensive automated warehouse that cannot keep up with pick demand at peak times, breaks down and still needs humans to split pallets down etc. Seems that putting the home shopping back instore with actual humans picking it who can make sensible substitutions if items are out of stock is going to be a big cost saving.
To be fair, most of the people that work at Heston are living in the catchment areas of the stores that will be doing the picking and delivery that Heston does so can easily move across to store in the same roles.
Fuzrat:
They havent made money since they opened apparently, even with the rise in home shopping due to Covid. We only put maybe 3 trucks of ambient into Heston a day, more or less the same as a standard superstore. Its a massive expensive automated warehouse that cannot keep up with pick demand at peak times, breaks down and still needs humans to split pallets down etc. Seems that putting the home shopping back instore with actual humans picking it who can make sensible substitutions if items are out of stock is going to be a big cost saving.To be fair, most of the people that work at Heston are living in the catchment areas of the stores that will be doing the picking and delivery that Heston does so can easily move across to store in the same roles.
Interesting, that made me wonder if Ocado makes a good profit, given its all in down the automated route.
zdnet.com/article/retailer- … s-to-keep/
Apparently not really, though with a broader offering than just the warehouse to door function might be hard to suggest they could end up struggling. I heard said on the radio recently than Amazon makes more from the web services side of the company than it does from retailing.
Another downside is it wasnt really committed to, in an ideal world all of the noddy vans for London and the North/Western surrounds would run out of there, doing away with them blocking up backyards. They run a fair few out of there but not all.
In reality, we take stock in, its picked by a machine at Heston into plastic totes, goes onto a contractors artic who then does a milk round to stores where its then unloaded and put on that stores noddy vans. Makes no sense whatsoever. Heston is picking for stores that pick and deliver themselves as well, just put more home shoppers in individual stores and give them Hestons vans.
Picking in store also gives more customers more choice as you can keep more niche stuff in stock, instore will sell it on impulse buying before it gets close on date, Heston just relies on someone searching for a random item and ends up sending close date stuff back to be discounted in stores.
A lot of the rise in “home shopping” has been more the contactless shop. Picked in store and collected by the customer in the carpark so this is better done by instore staff.
Cant really comment on Ocado, not sure how they operate but as a dedicated online I would imagine with more commitment than Asda.