City Link goes bust

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Skie

Ah, that age old tactic. See, what you do is change the terms and conditions for new staff to be worse than the existing staff and after a certain period you then have a lot of staff on the new terms (depends on how high your turnover is) and you then claim that it's 'unfair' that staff are on different terms/pay than others. Conveniently ignoring the fact you made it unfair yourself, you move the blame onto the people with the better T&C's as it's obviously their fault and they are the fat cats with the better pay and pensions.

This then becomes your platform to whittle away at everyone's pay and conditions, all in the name of fairness. If you can make the people with the worse conditions slightly better off while still also reducing the overall cost then the workforce will do the job for you.

City Link had another, rhyming name, but it would breach the forum rules.

That was more than a year ago.

The company suggested that the union’s vote represented only a “small minority” of it employees – stating that 12% were members, and that “less than half of these appear to have actually supported the union’s ballot”.
...
“At the moment we are in the position where colleagues doing the same job in the same depot are getting paid different wages. This is a legacy that the current management team has inherited and is one we believe is fundamentally unfair,” said Maynard. “The proposals we have put forward will resolve this while ensuring that the vast majority of colleagues see no reduction in their pay packet or actually get an increase.”

That situation tends to arise when another business is taken over and absorbed into the parent company.

City Link has suffered five years of losses in the wake of its acquisition of rival carrier Target Express in 2007.

Last year(2012) City Link made a £26.4m loss on a revenue of £321.7m.

[Stop It]

Well, this is sad all round, but shows that it depends on your viewpoint when you say this is "cynical timing" or not.

City Link have been burning money for years. The writing was on the wall last year when Rentokil Initial gave up on them and this "Better Capital" fund bought them.

These turnaround companies have a very hit and miss recond, not because they are inherantly good or bad, but because even due diligence fails to show how bad a company might be. On the face of it, City Link could've been turned around. After all it was operating in an expanding market, with a decent reliable network and a well known brand.

Alas, it was not to be, much like what happened to Comet in remark similar circumstances. The opposite story can be found in GAME which WAS turned around, brilliantly.

Yes, the timing was obviously planned. Better Capital have lost shed loads on this, and didn't want to lose any more. The moment Christmas was over they would be back to bleeding money so they called time, which is fair enough. bad timing but anyone working there who didn't see this coming didn't have their eyes open.

Nobody wins in cases like this. Turnaround companies do a lot better when the companies they take over actually make a profit! Tax deductibles don't pay for millions back that they lost, nor do they keep jobs viable. They do work for bigger companies with divisions who don't seem to work (Hello Sony!) and have the rest of the company pay their way, however. That generally only works if the company continues trading, however.

[Pierre]

Surely it's all planned by nasty business men to kick the down trodden workforce in the teeth. surely the venture capitalist fat cats have taken the money out of the employees wallets and the food out of the families mouths.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

Just goes to you. The guy who owns City Link is a multi millionaire, pumps money into Cameron 's pocket, that Sam's it all.
The biggest problem is the worker, works all hours (like l did) and they treat you like carp.
My wife nearly got killed in a car crash, my boss insisted that l had to go to work. This is what companies are like - its just money to them.
The owner if City Link is probably on a yacht somewhere

[Stop It]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Surely it's all planned by nasty business men to kick the down trodden workforce in the teeth. surely the venture capitalist fat cats have taken the money out of the employees wallets and the food out of the families mouths.

I know you're taking the mickey, but the best capitalists are the ones who have thriving, profitable businesses with happy workforces.

You only get so far by asset stripping and running, it's not sustainable for a start and doesn't produce ROI in any way the same level as actually running a business well.

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

Just goes to you. The guy who owns City Link is a multi millionaire, pumps money into Cameron 's pocket, that Sam's it all.
The biggest problem is the worker, works all hours (like l did) and they treat you like carp.
My wife nearly got killed in a car crash, my boss insisted that l had to go to work. This is what companies are like - its just money to them.
The owner if City Link is probably on a yacht somewhere

No, they really aren't, not all of them.

Those who produce a sustainable business model, provides for a sustained business. I'm proud to work for a company that values the contribution all workers make. Without them there is no business, and the best businessmen are ones who see their workers as people to make money with, not from.

[Taf]

It looks like it'll be the taxpayer who will be responsible for the redundancy payments under the statutory redundancy payments scheme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30621884

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

The biggest problem is the worker, works all hours (like l did) and they treat you like carp.

A brilliant metaphor and so very, very true. We are all treated like oily fish in a big fish pond. You did mean that didn't you Arthur?

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

Just goes to you. The guy who owns City Link is a multi millionaire, pumps money into Cameron 's pocket, that Sam's it all.
The biggest problem is the worker, works all hours (like l did) and they treat you like carp.
My wife nearly got killed in a car crash, my boss insisted that l had to go to work. This is what companies are like - its just money to them.
The owner if City Link is probably on a yacht somewhere

Actually, Arthur, he 'pumps money' into Nigel's pocket, as he is a UKIP supporter....

Originally Posted by Kursk

A brilliant metaphor and so very, very true. We are all treated like oily fish in a big fish pond. You did mean that didn't you Arthur?

Arthur thinks that posting the word crap is offensive..leave him be.He's trying to be a gentleman.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Bit of a cheap dig..how can any union do anything if the management call in administration during a holiday season?

The directors would be criminally responsible if they acted anything other than prudently. Once they know that they cannot pay their bills, they must not knowingly incur more debt and that includes wages.

This Christmas/season stuff is pure emotion and not a valid criticism of the directors, IMO.

---------- Post added at 12:21 ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 ----------

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

Just goes to you. The guy who owns City Link is a multi millionaire, pumps money into Cameron 's pocket, that Sam's it all.
The biggest problem is the worker, works all hours (like l did) and they treat you like carp.
My wife nearly got killed in a car crash, my boss insisted that l had to go to work. This is what companies are like - its just money to them.
The owner if City Link is probably on a yacht somewhere

That's a subjective statement and not the general case. I can make a subjective statement too. My boss was quite happy for me to work at home after a minor operation (I'm a contractor). I hope that boss is abnle to relax on a yacht somewhere.

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

The directors would be criminally responsible if they acted anything other than prudently. Once they know that they cannot pay their bills, they must not knowingly incur more debt and that includes wages.

This Christmas/season stuff is pure emotion and not a valid criticism of the directors, IMO.

When did morality become a dirty word in capitalism?All I can say is that a company that treats it's workers like crap will get workers that aren't worth a damn and they are bound to fail..Whereas all those companies that treat their workers as being worthwhile tend to thrive.Seems to me that the owners didn't want City Link to thrive.

Actually, they lost money on it - when they decided not to pump more money into it, it became insolvent, and by law, they had to declare it and call in the administrators.

[MovedGoalPosts]

A lot of people have lost sight that City Link was sold by it's previous owners Rentokil to Better Capital back in April 2013 for the nominal sum of £1 (you can't sell something for absolutely nothing). That indicates to me that even back in 2013 the company was not viable.

[Stop It]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

When did morality become a dirty word in capitalism?All I can say is that a company that treats it's workers like crap will get workers that aren't worth a damn and they are bound to fail..Whereas all those companies that treat their workers as being worthwhile tend to thrive.Seems to me that the owners didn't want City Link to thrive.

Then blame Rentokil Initial for that. The company has been burning money for over 5 years. It was taken over by a company who thought they could turn it around, it couldn't. Better Capital bought a house of cards, they may not have done enough to save it, but it wasn't them that caused them to collapse.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Stop It

Well, this is sad all round, but shows that it depends on your viewpoint when you say this is "cynical timing" or not.

City Link have been burning money for years. The writing was on the wall last year when Rentokil Initial gave up on them and this "Better Capital" fund bought them.

These turnaround companies have a very hit and miss recond, not because they are inherantly good or bad, but because even due diligence fails to show how bad a company might be. On the face of it, City Link could've been turned around. After all it was operating in an expanding market, with a decent reliable network and a well known brand.

Alas, it was not to be, much like what happened to Comet in remark similar circumstances. The opposite story can be found in GAME which WAS turned around, brilliantly.

Yes, the timing was obviously planned. Better Capital have lost shed loads on this, and didn't want to lose any more. The moment Christmas was over they would be back to bleeding money so they called time, which is fair enough. bad timing but anyone working there who didn't see this coming didn't have their eyes open.

Nobody wins in cases like this. Turnaround companies do a lot better when the companies they take over actually make a profit! Tax deductibles don't pay for millions back that they lost, nor do they keep jobs viable. They do work for bigger companies with divisions who don't seem to work (Hello Sony!) and have the rest of the company pay their way, however. That generally only works if the company continues trading, however.