Nerodio:
Won’t be just P&H at risk I’d imagine the central stores chain might be at risk aswell. They couldn’t of really ballsed this up anymore if they tried.
Tesbooker must be rubbing their hands with all the corner shops having to get their stuff from Premier or londis
Well costcutter will have to resorce their goods, which booker is probably the only alternative. Mccolls is going over to morrisons in january, so I guess that will take immediate effect now. the smaller independent shops will have very little choice but bookers either, so tesco’s chose a good time to buy them out, as they are now the only viable wholesaler for the smaller shops.
Nerodio:
Won’t be just P&H at risk I’d imagine the central stores chain might be at risk aswell. They couldn’t of really ballsed this up anymore if they tried.
Tesbooker must be rubbing their hands with all the corner shops having to get their stuff from Premier or londis
Well costcutter will have to resorce their goods, which booker is probably the only alternative. Mccolls is going over to morrisons in january, so I guess that will take immediate effect now. the smaller independent shops will have very little choice but bookers either, so tesco’s chose a good time to buy them out, as they are now the only viable wholesaler for the smaller shops.
from what I have read Costcutter will be using a variety of local and national companies (basically anyone who can get them stock) I would guess blakemores will be one of these.
P&H lost a considerable amount of money on the cost-cutters contract - You had to watch the shopkeepers like hawks so items didn’t disappear before they were signed for.
Cash & carries will be busier this week with desperate shopkeepers.
Going to be interesting to see who takes over their workload, as I can’t imagine too many outfits fighting over their distribution operation to PITA convenience shops.
P&H as a company deserve it,they took The Costcutter contract from Nisa and thought they could handle it…left a lot of shopkeepers with empty shelves and making a loss for weeks on end,got too big for their boots and they’ve paid the price big time.
Also the loss of the Costcutter contract made Nisa unsustainable on its own so they have now sold out to CO OP,which will result in another lot of redundancy once the deal gets finalised as it’s very likely the Nisa depots in Scunthorpe/Stoke/Harlow & the depot in Scotland will close.
Shame for the employees of P&H though,awful time to be out of work.
Vid:
Ex-workmate at Fareham, taken on a wife and daughter in the last couple of years, would like to think he won’t be left short in the run up to Xmas.
He along with many others will have been contacting agencies today, good luck to them all in finding something to keep them going.
That’s the thing that gets my goat ! Why do these firm always go pop at Christmas FFs !.?
I’ve been made redundant a couple of times in November and I left the last long term job in August as I didn’t like the outsourced company they wanted to use, this November, I’ve a feeling it’s a tax thing, maybe before filing the accounts?
The Tesco/Booker go ahead was probably the final nail in the coffin, Tesco was P&H’s biggest supplier for tobacco.
Won’t be crying for them, personal scars from the seventies may have healed but not forgotten.
I was based at the Fareham branch as of yesterday at 4pm when the whole place closed down. I’ve never seen it so empty. There was trucks half empty on the doors and orders half picked just left everywhere. We have however all been paid today so that’s kind of a bonus as they could have ■■■■■■ us all up and not given us anything. The transport manager said everone who was there for a substantial amount of time (however long that is?) will be entitled to some sort of government redundancy? But I have no idea if that’s true or not. I only started there 2 months ago and I was told at the interview that my job was “safe” and they wouldn’t be taking on anyone if they thought otherwise…
Cj-1989:
I was based at the Fareham branch as of yesterday at 4pm when the whole place closed down. I’ve never seen it so empty. There was trucks half empty on the doors and orders half picked just left everywhere. We have however all been paid today so that’s kind of a bonus as they could have [zb] us all up and not given us anything. The transport manager said everone who was there for a substantial amount of time (however long that is?) will be entitled to some sort of government redundancy? But I have no idea if that’s true or not. I only started there 2 months ago and I was told at the interview that my job was “safe” and they wouldn’t be taking on anyone if they thought otherwise…
Well I’m glad for all of the drivers that at least the company has paid up to date.
Just makes you wonder just what is around the corner. I dont think P & H will be the last…
Cj-1989:
I was based at the Fareham branch as of yesterday at 4pm when the whole place closed down. I’ve never seen it so empty. There was trucks half empty on the doors and orders half picked just left everywhere. We have however all been paid today so that’s kind of a bonus as they could have [zb] us all up and not given us anything. The transport manager said everone who was there for a substantial amount of time (however long that is?) will be entitled to some sort of government redundancy? But I have no idea if that’s true or not. I only started there 2 months ago and I was told at the interview that my job was “safe” and they wouldn’t be taking on anyone if they thought otherwise…
This is what he was talking about. I was there for three years with an agency and went part time permanent at the start of October for a bit of ‘em shall we say job security.
I do fee for those that are the sole breadwinner in the family though.
Vid:
Ex-workmate at Fareham, taken on a wife and daughter in the last couple of years, would like to think he won’t be left short in the run up to Xmas.
He along with many others will have been contacting agencies today, good luck to them all in finding something to keep them going.
That’s the thing that gets my goat ! Why do these firm always go pop at Christmas FFs !.?
I’ve been made redundant a couple of times in November and I left the last long term job in August as I didn’t like the outsourced company they wanted to use, this November, I’ve a feeling it’s a tax thing, maybe before filing the accounts?
Often tight cash flow at this time of year. Companies have the next quarters rent to pay as well as paying out for the extra Christmas stock. Also staff overtime as starting to get busy in preparation but not actual takings
Cj-1989:
I was based at the Fareham branch as of yesterday at 4pm when the whole place closed down. I’ve never seen it so empty. There was trucks half empty on the doors and orders half picked just left everywhere. We have however all been paid today so that’s kind of a bonus as they could have [zb] us all up and not given us anything. The transport manager said everone who was there for a substantial amount of time (however long that is?) will be entitled to some sort of government redundancy? But I have no idea if that’s true or not. I only started there 2 months ago and I was told at the interview that my job was “safe” and they wouldn’t be taking on anyone if they thought otherwise…
It’s worked out by pure coincidence you’ve been paid as they will of put the wages through 3-4 days ago so wouldn’t of been able to stop it,if this had of happened last week you wouldn’t of got paid…hope everything works out fella,awful thing to happen to anyone.
slowlane:
A tiny business getting involved with tobacco money and private equity only ends in the death of sed tiny business whose directors who thought they were big, got greedy, and discovered that their business is just pocket lint to the money men.
Fifth largest privately owned business in UK so not so all that tiny
Not tiny in scale, I’ll give you that for sure, I meant tiny in terms of playing with private equity houses who have liquid assets running in the tens of billions.
Taking the newspaper figure of P&H being valued at £350m… they are tiny in terms of going to play with the big boys.
It’s a ■■■■ shame that they’re going down, and will be swallowed up by a DHL-alike.
slowlane:
A tiny business getting involved with tobacco money and private equity only ends in the death of sed tiny business whose directors who thought they were big, got greedy, and discovered that their business is just pocket lint to the money men.
Fifth largest privately owned business in UK so not so all that tiny
Not tiny in scale, I’ll give you that for sure, I meant tiny in terms of playing with private equity houses who have liquid assets running in the tens of billions.
Taking the newspaper figure of P&H being valued at £350m… they are tiny in terms of going to play with the big boys.
It’s a ■■■■ shame that they’re going down, and will be swallowed up by a DHL-alike.
For those of us that had sat at P+H in Bristol for hours on end, it is hard to be sympathetic…
slowlane:
A tiny business getting involved with tobacco money and private equity only ends in the death of sed tiny business whose directors who thought they were big, got greedy, and discovered that their business is just pocket lint to the money men.
Fifth largest privately owned business in UK so not so all that tiny
Not tiny in scale, I’ll give you that for sure, I meant tiny in terms of playing with private equity houses who have liquid assets running in the tens of billions.
Taking the newspaper figure of P&H being valued at £350m… they are tiny in terms of going to play with the big boys.
It’s a ■■■■ shame that they’re going down, and will be swallowed up by a DHL-alike.
It was P&H trying to take on DHL that played a massive part in their downfall,they undercut DHL to take the costcutter contract and massively underestimated the logistics of it,left shop owners with empty shelves for weeks on end only delivering 20-30% if orders that were placed…I personally know of one shop owner who ended up with 30k of debt because of P&Hs failures on delivery’s,staff still had to be paid,bills had to be paid but he had no or next to no stock to sell!!!.
When P&H took over the contract they had no where near enough vehicles and no where near enough drivers,was told by a P&H driver they were paying agency drivers £100 a day bonus just to turn up on top of their wages,the whole thing was a train wreck from day one and now it’s caught up with them and forced them under.
No sympathy for them whatsoever,they’ve left 1000s of shop owners in debt and struggling now to survive and get stock and left 1000s of people out of work 4 weeks before xmas.
cav551:
There we have the problem with business in this country summed up in a nutshell with those two statements. Basically it is just pure GREED from those who can well afford to operate in a manner which is for the benefit of more than just themselves.
You don’t go into business to be a charity. You don’t survive quiet periods when you spend the good times only making wafer thin margins.
Steady on, chaps, I don’t have any sympathy for them either! They’ve ■■■■■■ themselves out of business through greed, and as usual it’s the workers who will feel the pain.
Cj-1989:
I was based at the Fareham branch as of yesterday at 4pm when the whole place closed down. I’ve never seen it so empty. There was trucks half empty on the doors and orders half picked just left everywhere. We have however all been paid today so that’s kind of a bonus as they could have [zb] us all up and not given us anything. The transport manager said everone who was there for a substantial amount of time (however long that is?) will be entitled to some sort of government redundancy? But I have no idea if that’s true or not. I only started there 2 months ago and I was told at the interview that my job was “safe” and they wouldn’t be taking on anyone if they thought otherwise…
I was about the fuel up and Neville came up to me and said “don’t bother”. Walked into the warehouse and it was rather eerie. It was a shame that you were told that. I only started there in June and assumed that they were to big to go under. Some drivers were there for 20+ years so they should be entitled to the redundancy.
slowlane:
A tiny business getting involved with tobacco money and private equity only ends in the death of sed tiny business whose directors who thought they were big, got greedy, and discovered that their business is just pocket lint to the money men.
Fifth largest privately owned business in UK so not so all that tiny
Not tiny in scale, I’ll give you that for sure, I meant tiny in terms of playing with private equity houses who have liquid assets running in the tens of billions.
Taking the newspaper figure of P&H being valued at £350m… they are tiny in terms of going to play with the big boys.
It’s a ■■■■ shame that they’re going down, and will be swallowed up by a DHL-alike.
For those of us that had sat at P+H in Bristol for hours on end, it is hard to be sympathetic…
Amen…
I collected a multidrop load this morning, first drop for St. Annes road called office to double check, had it taken off, ( delivery cancled)…
slowlane:
A tiny business getting involved with tobacco money and private equity only ends in the death of sed tiny business whose directors who thought they were big, got greedy, and discovered that their business is just pocket lint to the money men.
Fifth largest privately owned business in UK so not so all that tiny
Not tiny in scale, I’ll give you that for sure, I meant tiny in terms of playing with private equity houses who have liquid assets running in the tens of billions.
Taking the newspaper figure of P&H being valued at £350m… they are tiny in terms of going to play with the big boys.
It’s a ■■■■ shame that they’re going down, and will be swallowed up by a DHL-alike.
It was P&H trying to take on DHL that played a massive part in their downfall,they undercut DHL to take the costcutter contract and massively underestimated the logistics of it,left shop owners with empty shelves for weeks on end only delivering 20-30% if orders that were placed…I personally know of one shop owner who ended up with 30k of debt because of P&Hs failures on delivery’s,staff still had to be paid,bills had to be paid but he had no or next to no stock to sell!!!.
When P&H took over the contract they had no where near enough vehicles and no where near enough drivers,was told by a P&H driver they were paying agency drivers £100 a day bonus just to turn up on top of their wages,the whole thing was a train wreck from day one and now it’s caught up with them and forced them under.
No sympathy for them whatsoever,they’ve left 1000s of shop owners in debt and struggling now to survive and get stock and left 1000s of people out of work 4 weeks before xmas.
As someone who worked there I think what you’ve said regarding costcutters is a slight exaggeration
They’ve ■■■■■■ themselves out of business through greed, and as usual it’s the workers who will feel the pain.