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Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

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adrock1976

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What's it called? It's called Cumbernauld
I would have a wild guess with Arcadia Group, following the antics of Phillip Green (see various news sites - most say the same thing).

This was the same Philip Green who played a part in bringing the former British Home Stores to financial ruin.
 
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greyman42

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adrock1976 said:
I would have a wild guess with Arcadia Group, following the antics of Phillip Green (see various news sites - most say the same thing).

This was the same Philip Green who played a part in bringing the former British Home Stores to financial ruin.
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I don't see how his antics will have any effect on his business, positively or negatively.
 
ComUtoR

ComUtoR

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Evans Cycles just got bought by Sports Direct.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17189506.mike-ashley-closes-evans-cycles-stores-in-rescue-deal/

Billionaire Mike Ashley has stepped in to buy struggling bike retailer Evans Cycles but it will result in half of the bike chain's shops closing and hundreds of job losses.

The firm was placed into administration before being sold to Sports Direct International.

Mr Ashley, who founded Sports Direct, said: "In order to save the business, we only believe we will be able to keep 50% of stores open in the future.

"Unfortunately some stores will have to close."
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Bugger.
 
B

Bald Rick

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bramling said:
That would be a pain - they’re a decent shop, if not cheap.
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Sums it up. They have struggled in the mid ground between internet shopping for people who know what they want and want it cheapest (with convenient home delivery), and those who need advice / prepared to pay more for which there is a florushing independent bike shop scene.
 
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SteveP29

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Clip said:
People keep saying this about debenhams and HoS but whilst i hate the man for what he has done to my football team - he hasnt done that to Flannels who have some rather good brands in their stores - pretty much like HoS has too - if not better, so its really a silly thing to say that he would do the same
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Flannels seems to exist OK without his interference, although he is planning to open a Flannels on Northumberland Street just around the corner from another of his shops in Newcastle, Cruise. That is stupidity!
I hope everyone will observe the boycott for the game against Wolves, I won't be there, it'll certainly be better watching it in a warm pub with a few pints than sat freezing in my seat.

whhistle said:
Sports Direct flashing the cash recently...
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Reportedly paid £8M for them, he complained last year to Sky Sports that he has no capital because it's all tied up in wallpaper, funny how he then recoups up to £30M of the debt he owed by Newcastle United (money that would have been better served improving the biggest asset he actually has, rather than hamstringing it and facing relegation from the Premier League and a reduction in income of over £100M) and is able to make this purchase.
 
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Qwerty133

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SteveP29 said:
Flannels seems to exist OK without his interference, although he is planning to open a Flannels on Northumberland Street just around the corner from another of his shops in Newcastle, Cruise. That is stupidity!
I hope everyone will observe the boycott for the game against Wolves, I won't be there, it'll certainly be better watching it in a warm pub with a few pints than sat freezing in my seat.



Reportedly paid £8M for them, he complained last year to Sky Sports that he has no capital because it's all tied up in wallpaper, funny how he then recoups up to £30M of the debt he owed by Newcastle United (money that would have been better served improving the biggest asset he actually has, rather than hamstringing it and facing relegation from the Premier League and a reduction in income of over £100M) and is able to make this purchase.
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I believe he is closing the Cruise stores as the leases expire if they are located near a location of a flannels (or planned flannels).
 
pieguyrob

pieguyrob

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WH SMITHS also has/had a newspaper and magazine wholesale business. When I worked in various independent news agents we had no choice but to get our news supplied by them. That might shed some light on why they have survived so long. In Blackpool though they lost their monopoly to Menzies who at best are no where near as efficient as SMITHS in terms of newspaper wholesale and correct delivery of said news.
 
underbank

underbank

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Royal mail profits halved. Fair enough due to reduced letters, but they're losing ground on internet shopping to the others. Not surprised as they're not moving quickly enough to market changes. I.e. no Sunday services, very late/slow to adopt tracking on normal delivery options, expensive for some parcel sizes/weights compared to competition etc. They're just trapped by inertia doing the same things they've always done whilst their competitors are innovating. They're going to struggle if they keep having to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing what their competitors are doing and need to start getting ahead of the game if they're to survive. The future is small parcels due to internet shopping, but their competition are way ahead of the game.

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...zPHphla2vMR1eUlgm8QmfpD5jrY-SardwN6R3o6eBpt6Q
 
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Ken H

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Johnson group in trouble. They publish the i newspaper, and the Yorkshire Post, as well as a load of local papers. Newspaper industry is shedding readership at an a alarming rate.
 
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gswindale

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Ken H said:
Johnson group in trouble. They publish the i newspaper, and the Yorkshire Post, as well as a load of local papers. Newspaper industry is shedding readership at an a alarming rate.
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Just to clarify that this refers to Johnston Press and not Johnson Service Group who run the dry cleaning firm.
 
yorksrob

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underbank said:
Royal mail profits halved. Fair enough due to reduced letters, but they're losing ground on internet shopping to the others. Not surprised as they're not moving quickly enough to market changes. I.e. no Sunday services, very late/slow to adopt tracking on normal delivery options, expensive for some parcel sizes/weights compared to competition etc. They're just trapped by inertia doing the same things they've always done whilst their competitors are innovating. They're going to struggle if they keep having to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing what their competitors are doing and need to start getting ahead of the game if they're to survive. The future is small parcels due to internet shopping, but their competition are way ahead of the game.

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...zPHphla2vMR1eUlgm8QmfpD5jrY-SardwN6R3o6eBpt6Q
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The key thing is that the national delivery service, nation wide for a flat fare survives. Surely this will have to be maintained regardless ?
 
underbank

underbank

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yorksrob said:
The key thing is that the national delivery service, nation wide for a flat fare survives. Surely this will have to be maintained regardless ?
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Even more reason for them to take the small parcels business more seriously due to the decline of letters - at some stage it will become loss making and unless there's a get out clause, it will need to be subsidised by more profitable lines of business. It needs to grab the small parcel market by the collar and innovate it to get ahead of the competitors.
 
yorksrob

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underbank said:
Even more reason for them to take the small parcels business more seriously due to the decline of letters - at some stage it will become loss making and unless there's a get out clause, it will need to be subsidised by more profitable lines of business. It needs to grab the small parcel market by the collar and innovate it to get ahead of the competitors.
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What is there to innovate. It offers a flat fare across the whole country.
 
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underbank

underbank

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yorksrob said:
What is there to innovate. It offers a flat fare across the whole country.
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Sunday deliveries, collection/drop off points, better tracking, better pricing models to remove the anomalies, later collections from POs and post boxes, collection from senders, fixed delivery timescales instead of the vague first/second class. You know, all the things their competitors in the small parcel market are doing that are leaving them behind.
 
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jon0844

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The Royal Mail has got a good deal with Amazon so you can rock up with a parcel to return and scan a barcode on your phone to print a sticky label. Before that it was done via Collect+ (may still be?) and it's convenient for people without printers.

Yet if I get a missed delivery from the Royal Mail, whereas I could once wait 3 hours and collect, I must now wait one working day and the opening hours have been shortened (it took long enough to extend them from a time the office closed at 1pm all but one day a week).

Parcel Force wouldn't even let me opt to collect the next day but wait 48 hours. I can walk to the depot in 5 minutes from my house. They also had to try one more time even though I went online to say I'd collect as I wouldn't be in. Why send a driver out when I've already filled in a form saying I'll collect?

Definitely room for improvement. For one, let people opt to collect from the sorting office or depot if it's more convenient.
 
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mmh

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underbank said:
Sunday deliveries, collection/drop off points, better tracking, better pricing models to remove the anomalies, later collections from POs and post boxes, collection from senders, fixed delivery timescales instead of the vague first/second class. You know, all the things their competitors in the small parcel market are doing that are leaving them behind.
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Royal Mail do all of those things, except Sunday deliveries.
 
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mmh

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jon0844 said:
Yet if I get a missed delivery from the Royal Mail, whereas I could once wait 3 hours and collect, I must now wait one working day and the opening hours have been shortened (it took long enough to extend them from a time the office closed at 1pm all but one day a week).
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That's because of the changes to the delivery rounds. Traditionally rounds were shorter and completed in the morning, so undelivered items would be back at the delivery office by midday. Deliveries happen over a much longer period now so the items might not return until late in the day now.
 
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Class37.4

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Ken H said:
Johnson group in trouble. They publish the i newspaper, and the Yorkshire Post, as well as a load of local papers. Newspaper industry is shedding readership at an a alarming rate.
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The Titles being bought by a consortium of Lenders to JP, and while they are losing readers I gather the biggest problem is a major loss of Local advertising for things like Jobs etc.

I certainly don't see a future for the Physical Newspaper that's for sure, its something the older generation will buy, the younger generation will simply look online as I do. Last time I bought a newspaper was when I was in hospital, and even that was only because nobody seemed to know what the correct Wi-fi password was.
 
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jon0844

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mmh said:
That's because of the changes to the delivery rounds. Traditionally rounds were shorter and completed in the morning, so undelivered items would be back at the delivery office by midday. Deliveries happen over a much longer period now so the items might not return until late in the day now.
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At least my post box now has a 1630 collection time. For a short time they emptied it around 0930 or 1000. It seems common sense prevailed on that, but there are many more things that need to change. Given how poor Hermes, Yodel and others are it should be possible to do well by providing a better service. There are now people actively avoiding retailers that use crappy carriers, so it's the perfect time.
 
richw

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jon0844 said:
Yet if I get a missed delivery from the Royal Mail, whereas I could once wait 3 hours and collect, I must now wait one working day and the opening hours have been shortened (it took long enough to extend them from a time the office closed at 1pm all but one day a week).
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The advise is to wait until the next day in case it hasn’t made it back yet, as some rounds are all day now. It’s a standard national card. If you see your postman, have a small talk conversation and drop in what time does he finish. I did this and discovered he finishes normally between 1430-1500, without fail my undelivered items have always been available after picking the kids up from school!
 
underbank

underbank

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jon0844 said:
There are now people actively avoiding retailers that use crappy carriers, so it's the perfect time.
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Unfortunately, there are people who avoid retailers using Royal Mail too due to their problems. I agree, if RM get their act together and make rapid changes, they could take back the internet market, but if they remain stagnant and evolving at the speed of a glacier, they'll just drop further. If their small parcel service had been better in the first place, there wouldn't have been the huge number of crappy carriers dominating the market.
 
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jon0844

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richw said:
The advise is to wait until the next day in case it hasn’t made it back yet, as some rounds are all day now. It’s a standard national card. If you see your postman, have a small talk conversation and drop in what time does he finish. I did this and discovered he finishes normally between 1430-1500, without fail my undelivered items have always been available after picking the kids up from school!
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I don't want this to become a Royal Mail thread, but the last time I popped in to ask if the postman had returned, I was told to come back the next day as per the card instructions. The man at the desk wouldn't even check for me. I assume this was either one person having a bad day, or not wanting to send out the message that it's okay to come and check anyway.

Ideally, you'd have the sorting office open between 5 and, say, 8 or 9pm for people coming home from work, and have items ready for collection from 5 or 6pm.

I appreciate that changing hours like this probably requires a lot of discussion with unions and would be similar to asking rail workers to work different hours.
 
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