Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

[Snow1964]

Seems Cazoo are in trouble
Announced closure of multiple sites
Customers with subscription based used car sales apparently being told to return them

Various news reports currently from reports of staff that are being made redundant but nothing official yet

 

[Techniquest]

https://www.scribbler.com/find-a-store/ link seems to be hidden at the bottom of the page rather than having a handy link at the top.

Looks like the closest to Hereford is Brizzle

Thanks, I looked on their site map and didn't spot that. It'll be a long time until I'm next in Bristol, so it looks like Scribbler will not get a visit from me this year!

 

[skyhigh]

Seems Cazoo are in trouble
Announced closure of multiple sites
Customers with subscription based used car sales apparently being told to return them

Various news reports currently from reports of staff that are being made redundant but nothing official yet

Doesn't surprise me given that car prices are now starting to fall again. If they bought them at the high and couldn't shift them they are likely to end up with a loss. A family member sold their car via Cazoo. The same car is now listed for several thousand pounds less than they paid for it...

 

[birchesgreen]

Lot of competition in that sector too, Cazoo have expanded fast and pumped a lot into marketing. Now i guess those debts are becoming hard to service.

 

[Merseysider]

Lot of competition in that sector too, Cazoo have expanded fast and pumped a lot into marketing. Now i guess those debts are becoming hard to service.

And their adverts were bloody annoying too

 

[londonteacher]

I've just seen on my Google news feed that H & M fashion retailers are to close four more of their UK stores....on top of the ones that they closed last autumn. Apparently they are also closing a large number of stores across Europe. Could this be another company that's on the way out?

I would say that H&M is pretty safe as they have an online business that does well. However, high street stores closing is possibly quite likely.

This is something that can be seen across the retail sector and is a reason why shops such as ASOS and other similars do well as it convenience.

 

[dk1]

I had to Google Cazoo. Never heard of them.

 

[simonw]

Seems Cazoo are in trouble
Announced closure of multiple sites
Customers with subscription based used car sales apparently being told to return them

Various news reports currently from reports of staff that are being made redundant but nothing official yet

cazzo have been in trouble for some time

Cazoo share price tanks to record low valuing used car dealer at just £79m – Car Dealer Magazine

Online used car dealer Cazoo’s share price has tanked to a new record low of just $0.13 – valuing the business at just over £79m. The share price has

cardealermagazine.co.uk

and various financial stories fro m earlier in 2022

 

[Iskra]

M&Co gone now. Been teetering for a while now though.

M&Co announces closure of all stores with 2,000 jobs set to be axed

The M&Co brand was purchased for an undisclosed sum but its physical stores are not included in the purchase.

news.stv.tv

 

[Peter Sarf]

M&Co gone now. Been teetering for a while now though.

M&Co announces closure of all stores with 2,000 jobs set to be axed

The M&Co brand was purchased for an undisclosed sum but its physical stores are not included in the purchase.

news.stv.tv

There is a buyer for the brand name but not the stores or web business. I suppose another case of the buyer not needing the high street presence and not even needing the existing website as they are just wanting to enhance the product range for their own website.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Giving how many of their stores were in somewhat remote random Scottish locations I do wonder if if the high cost of transport for stock and the ongoing ferry chaos which Nicola refuses to accept is a problem have had more than a little bit to do with this

 

[dk1]

Giving how many of their stores were in somewhat remote random Scottish locations I do wonder if if the high cost of transport for stock and the ongoing ferry chaos which Nicola refuses to accept is a problem have had more than a little bit to do with this

Slightly off topic but I used wonder that with Wetherspoons when they had the pub in Wick. They do their own distribution & there was nothing for the 100 plus miles between there and Inverness. I could never see it was commercially viable. There were tentative plans for another on Orkney but that came to nothing.

 

[Iskra]

Slightly off topic but I used wonder that with Wetherspoons when they had the pub in Wick. They do their own distribution & there was nothing for the 100 plus miles between there and Inverness. I could never see it was commercially viable. There were tentative plans for another on Orkney but that came to nothing.

A big company can accept that, as elsewhere they will have groupings of pubs close together so it evens out.

 

[dk1]

A big company can accept that, as elsewhere they will have groupings of pubs close together so it evens out.

Probably one of the reasons it was sold off. Nothing north of Inverness now.

 

[richw]

Giving how many of their stores were in somewhat remote random Scottish locations I do wonder if if the high cost of transport for stock and the ongoing ferry chaos which Nicola refuses to accept is a problem have had more than a little bit to do with this

Assuming your post is in reply to M&Co I’d never heard of them until I moved to Liskeard, a small Cornish town with very low footfall. They have a huge store here, and the footfall through town is minimal. It’s deemed a relatively poor town financially yet M&Co always seems very expensive, even to me with a household income well above average! Poundland with its pep&Co brand looks thriving directly across the road. The only national brands we have in town are M&Co, Poundland, boots and Superdrug. Everything else is small independents with specialist lines.
There’s a M&co in both of the next two smallish towns, but no branches in either big city centre close by where they’d have decent passing footfall. I don’t understand their strategy to be honest and can see why they’ve failed

 

[Andyh82]

Assuming your post is in reply to M&Co I’d never heard of them until I moved to Liskeard, a small Cornish town with very low footfall. They have a huge store here, and the footfall through town is minimal. It’s deemed a relatively poor town financially yet M&Co always seems very expensive, even to me with a household income well above average! Poundland with its pep&Co brand looks thriving directly across the road. The only national brands we have in town are M&Co, Poundland, boots and Superdrug. Everything else is small independents with specialist lines.
There’s a M&co in both of the next two smallish towns, but no branches in either big city centre close by where they’d have decent passing footfall. I don’t understand their strategy to be honest and can see why they’ve failed

I think most of their locations seems to be in smaller towns

Presumably hoping they’d get trade from being one of a few clothing options in these sorts of towns rather than one of many options in the big cities.

 

[GusB]

I was saddened to see that the M&Co branch in Nairn had closing down sale signs when I walked past it the other day - it's the only such store on the High Street there, and no doubt this will be the case in many of the smaller towns. It's probably no coincidence that a Sainsbury's opened there about a decade ago ago and, more recently, a branch of Home Bargains. If I look at the list of towns nearby that have M&Co branches, it's a similar story.

Giving how many of their stores were in somewhat remote random Scottish locations I do wonder if if the high cost of transport for stock and the ongoing ferry chaos which Nicola refuses to accept is a problem have had more than a little bit to do with this

M&Co has quite a few stores in England too, and I'm not certain that all those in Scotland can be classed as being in "remote random Scottish locations"!

Of those locations that do require a ferry to reach them, only two are likely to be affected by "Nicola's ferries": Stornoway and Dunoon, the latter of which has alternative provision. The other locations are Kirkwall, Lerwick and Douglas - are you going to blame "Nicola" for problems getting to the Isle of Man?

 

[DelW]

I think most of their locations seems to be in smaller towns

Presumably hoping they’d get trade from being one of a few clothing options in these sorts of towns rather than one of many options in the big cities.

Indeed, on my local high street in Surrey the only mainstream* clothing shops were M&Co and Edinburgh Woollen Mill. I found the latter more useful as M&Co seemed to have only a small selection of men's clothing.

Sadly both have now closed, and the only local retailer of normal* clothing is the edge-of-town Sainsbury's.

*i.e. the sort of stuff a middle-aged male or similar might buy.

 

[cactustwirly]

Seems Cazoo are in trouble
Announced closure of multiple sites
Customers with subscription based used car sales apparently being told to return them

Various news reports currently from reports of staff that are being made redundant but nothing official yet

They have too much stock they can't shift basically.
I can't see them lasting much longer.

Cinch is part of BCA, so they can just auction off the surplus so are in a better position

 

[Darandio]

Bit of a thread bump but another nod to Poundstretcher, there can't be much life left in them surely?

Walked past the front entrance of one today where a pallet of bottled water (never heard of the brand) was outside and a sign read "35p or a case for £8.40!". I'm not sure whether to laugh at the fact that the case price is simply 24 x 35p or the fact that you can get 24 bottles of supermarket own brand spring water for less than half the price.

As it happens walking past is the closest I get to one of their stores now, i've never been back since the debacle when they doubled the price of pretty much everything and then did a 50% off sale.

 

[Jimini]

Tuffnells went pop yesterday. Over 2,000 employees gone.

Tuffnells: Parcel firm goes bust with loss of more than 2,000 jobs​

• • Published
    19 hours ago

Share

IMAGE SOURCE,SIMON THAKE/BBC
Image caption,
The company has closed all its hubs and depots
By Tim Dale
BBC News

More than 2,000 workers are to be made redundant after delivery firm Tuffnells Parcels Express went into administration.
The Sheffield-based business has appointed joint administrators at Interpath Advisory after failing to secure new funding.
The majority of Tuffnells' 2,200 employees, working across its 33 UK depots, will be made redundant, Interpath said.
Just 128 staff have been retained.
All its transport hubs and depots have been closed.

'Devastating'​

Rick Harrison, joint administrator, said Tuffnells provided delivery services to more than 4,000 businesses across the UK under its 'The Big Green Parcel Machine' brand.
"Unfortunately, the highly competitive nature of the UK parcel delivery market, coupled with significant inflation across the company's fixed cost base in recent times, has resulted in the company experiencing intense pressure on cashflow."
Mr Harrison said he appreciated the news would be "devastating" for employees.
"Regrettably, with deliveries suspended and with no prospect of them resuming in the immediate term, we have had to make the majority of staff redundant."
He said their first priority would be to support all those affected and helping them to make claims to the Redundancy Payments Office.
Joint administrator Howard Smith said customers would be aware all the firm's transport hubs and depots were shut.
"Our team will be making contact with customers over the coming days to arrange parcel collection," he added.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Bit of a thread bump but another nod to Poundstretcher, there can't be much life left in them surely?

I think they’ve long lost their use. The one in Paignton is always really quiet whilst Poundland 100yds away is always busy. The quality of the goods in Poundstretcher has dropped over the years too.

 

[Whistler40145]

Tuffnells went pop yesterday. Over 2,000 employees gone.

Have other Couriers swallowed up business from Tuffnells?

 

[Jimini]

Have other Couriers swallowed up business from Tuffnells?

Cherry picking the bits of their business that they fancy as I type!

 

[tomuk]

Tuffnells went pop yesterday. Over 2,000 employees gone.

That is for at least the second time.

Have other Couriers swallowed up business from Tuffnells?

Yes and Tuffnells made their business out of it as they specialised in odd oversized overweight drops compared to most other couriers.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Bit of a thread bump but another nod to Poundstretcher, there can't be much life left in them surely?

Walked past the front entrance of one today where a pallet of bottled water (never heard of the brand) was outside and a sign read "35p or a case for £8.40!". I'm not sure whether to laugh at the fact that the case price is simply 24 x 35p or the fact that you can get 24 bottles of supermarket own brand spring water for less than half the price.

As it happens walking past is the closest I get to one of their stores now, i've never been back since the debacle when they doubled the price of pretty much everything and then did a 50% off sale.

I found out last month that somebody I worked with up until two years ago went to work for Poundstretcher as Retail and Logistics Director. He was a pretty sensible bloke and was well respected when I worked with him. He lasted 5 months at Poundstretcher and then walked off the job

 

[skyhigh]

I found out last month that somebody I worked with up until two years ago went to work for Poundstretcher as Retail and Logistics Director. He was a pretty sensible bloke and was well respected when I worked with him. He lasted 5 months at Poundstretcher and then walked off the job

From what I remember of the TV programme that featured Poundstretcher that doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

From what I remember of the TV programme that featured Poundstretcher that doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

Was that the one where "senior directors" often foisted large amounts of somewhat unusual, short-dated, stock lines on poor unsuspecting local store managers?

 

[skyhigh]

Was that the one where "senior directors" often foisted large amounts of somewhat unusual, short-dated, stock lines on poor unsuspecting local store managers?

It was indeed

 

[johntea]

The big problem with Poundstretcher is Aziz Tayub doesn't seem to listen to any other ideas other than his own!

The Channel 4 series wasn't exactly positive advertising a few years ago...basically Chris Edwards (the ex boss of Poundworld) brought in his team to make a few sensible suggestions, then Aziz ripped all those up and fired him! Meanwhile the Poundworld series on BBC a few years earlier was much more positive (Poundworld only went out of business under the new owners after Chris had flogged it for £150m)

Another CEO down by the looks recently too

Poundstretcher CEO steps down as company eyes flotation | Retail Bulletin

www.theretailbulletin.com

Poundstretcher’s chief executive Derek Lawlor has left the business following a difference in opinion over where the company should be headed.

Lawlor joined the discount retailer in the summer of 2022 after seven years in senior roles at the Asda supermarket chain.

In an interview with BusinessLive, Poundstretcher owner Aziz Tayub said he was hoping to float the business this year or next if economic conditions stabilise, and estimated that the retailer will be valued at between £250 million and £300 million.

Speaking of Lawlor’s departure, he told BusinessLive: “He left because he wanted to make a lot of changes, and we couldn’t agree with those changes. This is a company that can’t change dramatically, it needs steady changes, so we agreed that he would leave. He officially leaves mid-May because he is on gardening leave.”

Tayub is currently looking to make some small additions to its management team, including a new chairman, but is still planning to be part of the business for “a few more years at least”.