WiggleCRC to axe 300 jobs

[srw]

I have seen the same thing 1st hand, the competition bought our company/brand moved the production to their main facility and closed my branch.
They offered our brand for a year but pushed their brand on the customers until they killed the brand I used to work for.
It's standard practise for business now.

It's been standard practice for centuries. Never mind the bullshit about customer centricity, this sort of thing is an inevitable consequence of joint stock limited liability companies, which were invented in the 18th century. Watson was only a 50% owner of CRC, which means that when he (they?) sought to grow CRC buy bringing in external funding, this sort of trade sale was one of two main exit strategies on his radar. The other would have been a disposal directly to a venture capitalist. Either way, CRC's Northern Ireland operations were doomed several years ago - unless, that is, Watson had written some sort of covenant around local jobs into the sale. The fact that he didn't tells me all I need to know.

 

[Sixmile]

It hasn't "come to this". The owners of CRC made a conscious decision that they knew would, in all likelihood, result in the closure of the local warehouse.

It has 'come to this' in the way I meant, that local people in their hundreds are losing their jobs. CRC management may have seen such a scenario down the line but the local staff were hopeful that it wouldn't be the case and unfortunately the announcement has come. Our local news has been flooded with this story with local politicians saying they were given 'almost cast iron guarantees' that the merger wouldn't lead to job losses at the time. Although we all know what cast iron guarantees in politics and business mean, never mind 'almost' ones.

 

[mjr]

Our local news has been flooded with this story with local politicians saying they were given 'almost cast iron guarantees' that the merger wouldn't lead to job losses at the time.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...move-warehouse-to-west-midlands-35164244.html has only the union rep mentioning assurances.

The economy minister doesn't mention them in http://www.itv.com/news/utv/update/2016-10-26/threat-to-ni-cycling-jobs-deeply-worrying-minister/

Other sites seem similar. Where's the flood? Seems like a gentle trickle of micturate.

 

[snorri]

It was an English iceberg?

No, but it was an English captain in command of Titanic.

 

[Sixmile]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...move-warehouse-to-west-midlands-35164244.html has only the union rep mentioning assurances.

The economy minister doesn't mention them in http://www.itv.com/news/utv/update/2016-10-26/threat-to-ni-cycling-jobs-deeply-worrying-minister/

Other sites seem similar. Where's the flood? Seems like a gentle trickle of micturate.

It was the lead story on all BBC newsline reports yesterday, major discussion point on the main radio shows and in the major newspaper as you pointed out. If that's a trickle, ok.

Danny Kinahan, MP for south antrim was who I was quoted with regard to 'almost cast iron guarantees' when he was speaking on BBC news yesterday. He and other politicians visited CRC in Mallusk yesterday.

 

[jonny jeez]

It hasn't "come to this". The owners of CRC made a conscious decision that they knew would, in all likelihood, result in the closure of the local warehouse.

Agreed. It hasn't come to anything.

Some people started a business, built it up and flogged it.

There is nothing going on here that doesn't happen every day in business and has always done so.

How are wiggle the baddie on this, were they supposed to refuse to buy the business and allow it to go to a competitor.

Crc are the baddie...if there is one

 

[srw]

[QUOTE 4530906, member: 259"]Why was that?[/QUOTE]
For the reasons I outlined in the bits of my post you excised. The previous owner built up a business with a view to realising his investment. He chose to do that without sufficient guarantee that jobs in NI would persist after his involvement ended.

 

[jonny jeez]

Right. You might like my magic helmet, too.

Do you make them in carbon?

 

[Cycleops]

One company takes over another. Both are selling to the same market. Something has to give.

Dont understand why people are talking about 'brand'. They are just shopfronts.

 

[Fab Foodie]

If you have done business with a selection of businesses and had good service from one, neutral from others, and poor from another, brand matters.

....except Russell....

 

[frank9755]

They will keep the CTC brand, in the UK at least. The deal wasn't really about the UK though, and want really about closing operations, but about avoiding having to open new ones.
Wiggle's main strategy is to roll out internationally to less mature markets where the competition is a bit less intense and where they can potentially get better margins as a result. CRC was already in some countries where wiggle wants to be and it is quicker to buy rather than build up the operations from scratch.
The northern Irish operations were essentially a bit of collateral damage / extra savings, from serving both websites from one back end.
The closure of the NI operations would have been part of the deal valuation though, and wiggle would have paid the previous owners a sum to reflect the value of those savings.

 

[srw]

They will keep the CTC brand, in the UK at least. The deal wasn't really about the UK though, and want really about closing operations, but about avoiding having to open new ones.
Wiggle's main strategy is to roll out internationally to less mature markets where the competition is a bit less intense and where they can potentially get better margins as a result. CRC was already in some countries where wiggle wants to be and it is quicker to buy rather than build up the operations from scratch.
The northern Irish operations were essentially a bit of collateral damage / extra savings, from serving both websites from one back end.
The closure of the NI operations would have been part of the deal valuation though, and wiggle would have paid the previous owners a sum to reflect the value of those savings.

What are you? Some kind of expert?! You're getting in the way of some people who just want a good rant at the Unfairness of The Man.

 

[swansonj]

What are you? Some kind of expert?! You're getting in the way of some people who just want a good rant at the Unfairness of The Man.

One can understand exactly how business works, and even acknowledge the necessity within a capitalist system, and still think it is unfair, can one not?

 

[srw]

One can understand exactly how business works, and even acknowledge the necessity within a capitalist system, and still think it is unfair, can one not?

One can. My observation would be that this thread is not over-burdened with observations as self-aware as that.

 

[Blue Hills]

If you know any better (ie: that Chris Watson didn't say that) please do offer it up That's obviously more important than what was said.

I think you need to do a bit more work on researching how PR works.

That public statement is classic PRese.

I know.

For a fair few years I worked in that environment.

Though it might somewhat surprise folk who know me offlne

thankfully I never did owt too bad.

I could point to some examples of awful PR crap - but probably best not.