Rentokil Initial has sold City Link to turnaround investment firm Better Capital. City Link MD Dave Smith will continue to lead the company through its transformation programme-
Loss maker for quite some time I believe.
Yours for £1
I use them to send stuff that I’ve sold on E.Bay and the like, and have found them to be very good. Even standard service stuff usually gets there next day, and intact which is more than can be said for other parcel companies out there that should be shut down, never mind sold.
Can’t believe they’ve lost so much money, but then again, it is a fiercely competitive sector.
Ken.
Better Capital described as a restructuring specialist we all know what that means probably job loses .
Better Capital is the investment vehicle run by Jon Moulton, the same guy who tried to buy Rover from BMW just for the MG business but was shouted down and vilified as an asset stripper, described as “someone who looks like their main hobby is pulling the legs off spiders”
Despite this he has made an awful lot of money for his investors over the years and is certainly no mug.
He is investing forty big ones into City Link so he must know what he’s doing
Do they operate like palletrunners at the depots - looking at the hightop curtainsiders I see flying around at night…?
Winseer:
Do they operate like palletrunners at the depots - looking at the hightop curtainsiders I see flying around at night…?
Last time I drove for them everything was in cages.
City link is a good company, I never had any problems compared to Yodel + hermes etc and other companies I’ve used.
Quinny:
I use them to send stuff that I’ve sold on E.Bay and the like, and have found them to be very good. Even standard service stuff usually gets there next day, and intact which is more than can be said for other parcel companies out there that should be shut down, never mind sold.How do you manage to send stuff with them?
Can’t believe they’ve lost so much money, but then again, it is a fiercely competitive sector.Never recovered after buying Target Express, for the wrong price at the wrong time.
Ken.
bluenose:
Quinny:
I use them to send stuff that I’ve sold on E.Bay and the like, and have found them to be very good. Even standard service stuff usually gets there next day, and intact which is more than can be said for other parcel companies out there that should be shut down, never mind sold.How do you manage to send stuff with them?
Can’t believe they’ve lost so much money, but then again, it is a fiercely competitive sector.Never recovered after buying Target Express, for the wrong price at the wrong time.
Ken.
They severely cocked up that buyout, both companies were using different computer systems and they found it impossible to combine them despite throwing millions at it. They tried buying the franchisees out of their contracts but that went wrong too and they ended up keeping them on all the while ignoring the customer.
bluenose:
Quinny:
I use them to send stuff that I’ve sold on E.Bay and the like, and have found them to be very good. Even standard service stuff usually gets there next day, and intact which is more than can be said for other parcel companies out there that should be shut down, never mind sold.How do you manage to send stuff with them?
Can’t believe they’ve lost so much money, but then again, it is a fiercely competitive sector.Never recovered after buying Target Express, for the wrong price at the wrong time.
Ken.
By using 3rd party parcel websites like Parcelmonkey etc.
Ken.
Is this another case of “great firm to work for, but lousy one to use as a customer”?
FedEx taking out ANC doesn’t seem to be showing much in the way of ongoing problems by comparison…
Winseer:
Is this another case of “great firm to work for, but lousy one to use as a customer”?
Other way round at a guess. Service is generally good but like all parcels firms it’s a high-pressure environment and if you work in that sector you either love it or hate it.
Actually I’ve just had a parcel delivered by them today; new loft ladder. In good nick, and left where I asked it to be. Hermes, by comparison, had three attempts to collect a parcel from my place (again left in notified location) and only succeeded the third time cos the wife was at home and saw the driver.
Done it for over 20 years at RM… Great job, but not so great once the overtime dried up. Maybe in the years to come the overtime will come back, they’ll start recruiting again, and I’ll indeed be going back. Now I’ve seen the grass on the cowboy side of the fence ain’t greener after all. 
On the contract I’m on there’s also a Citylink guy provided by the local depot to sort all the multidrop stuff that goes through them.
He got given 3 days notice today, apparently they can’t afford to keep satellite staff like that anymore.
Real shame as he’s a very good worker.
We used to use them three or four years ago, but they sent a letter stating unless we sent a miniumum of forty or fifty consignments a day or agree to pay for forty or fifty a day they would not collect from us anymore, we got around that for a couple of weeks by taking the consignments direct to the warehouse nearby, they then stopped us doing that on H&S rules. We went elsewhere, so not surprised.
The most unorganised parcel co I ever worked for.