FH16Globetrotter:
repton:
newmercman:
he had a good business model
Surely going under twice kind of proves he didn’t.
Paul
Come on Paul, that proves nothing!
At this point in time, I will bet that not one poster in this forum has any idea whatsoever WHY Bulmers have gone under again. We’ve got a couple of people throwing around a few MMTM type stories, but we all know that plenty of truckers are pathalogical liars (sit in any RDC waiting room and you WILL get proof of that!), and some are just fantasists at best! Hence, it’s fair to assume that a reasonable portion of what you get told by a bunch of truckers will be pure [zb] .
It’s entirely possible that Bulmers have gone bust through blatant mismanagement. It is also quite possible that they had a good profitable business model, and that due to the failure of a key customer they have been left in a cash-flow situation that they cannot rectify.
If your biggest customer went bust tommorow and failed to pay what they owe you currently, could your business survive? The reality of 90-day payment terms (and if you can get Asda, Tesco or most other big firms to pay in any less you’re bucking the trend) means that you can have a lot of ‘risk’ sitting on the balance sheet despite having an otherwise healthy business!
I’m not saying Jonathan Bulmer is businessman of the year … but I’ll wait until I know some real facts before I start ripping the guy apart on a public forum, especially a guy who incidentally ran a profitable business for many years before his recent troubles!
January 2009
The global downturn has claimed its first high-profile victim of the new year, with Teesside container operator Bulmers Logistics forced into a ‘pre-pack’ administration, with a new company, Bulmers Transport — formed by the previous management team — taking over its “trade and assets” for an undisclosed sum.
Bulmers Logistics had been under pressure for some time, with the company hit badly by the fall in container volumes. It had already shed some 50 jobs before Christmas in a bid to cut costs, however, when its funder declined to provide continuing support, the firm was left with little option but to consider either a sale or administration. It eventually entered administration at 1600hrs on 21 January, with the assets sold five minutes later.
Although the company will be making some 50 staff redundant, cutting its fleet by 40 trucks and closing its Hull and Immingham offices, it saves more than 200 jobs, which will transfer to the new firm under TUPE. In addition, it says it will continue to service all its current locations directed from its Middlesbrough or Ipswich offices.
The managing director of Bulmers Transport, Jonathan Bulmer, says: “I am extremely pleased to be able to offer a secure future to the majority of our customers, staff and suppliers.”
Director Andrew Spence-Wolrich says that the move is not without pain for some of its creditors, but insists that this was the best possible outcome. He adds: “Jonathan Bulmer has invested a large amount of money in this. The reason he’s done that is because he’s a fighter and he doesn’t want to give up on a business he’s been running for the past 17 years.
“There’s also a 100% belief in his people.”
As yet, there is no indication of the size of Bulmers Logistics’ debt or the eventual dividend to creditors.
February 2010
The fall-and-rise-again of Bulmers Logistics - reborn as Bulmers Transport - last year is pretty well documented. However, Johnathan Bulmer has stayed resolutely silent about how the new operation is performing, feeling, probably rightly, that speaking about it was only likely to inflame passions again.
That said, a quick chat at the Asda carrier awards last night (where the company was handed the Container Carrier of the Year title) gave some indication as to how the business is going.
The long and short of it is that it’s turned a profit in its first year - more or less. There will be some exceptional items carried over - notably £140,000-odd of redundancy payments relating to the administration - but it is now trading within its means.
Bulmer himself says he has “learned some important lessons” over the past 12 months which hopefully augers well for the future. Apparently it’s even started back-loading containers where possible which sounds like a first to me.
Another hard lesson has been the valiue of a company when its in administration (lest we forget he paid a whole pound for Bulmers Logistics - with a bunch of other costs obviously). It has already looked at making on acquisition - trying to pick up the business and assets of N Irving in Morpeth when that went under but decided not to “as we couldn’t keep the thing together”. Now Bulmer says there is another acquisition being lined up which is “75% of the way there”. Apparently it’s outside of its Teesside heartland but didn’t reveal any more details. Watch this space.*
February 2011
*Bulmers Transport Fails Again 
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