City Link parcel firm gone into administration....

BlondeHeadOn

Link here:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30602326


Awful news for 2,727 employees, unless it can somehow be saved.

Masomnia

Are they under some legal obligation to announce now, or was ruining a load of people's Christmases voluntary!?

marvin

The directors are under a duty to announce at the earliest opportunity they were clearly hoping for something special for Xmas that did not materialise.

shortchanged_2

Makes you wonder what has gone wrong in an ever increasing market. The competition must be getting intense but when you have pants companies like Yodel as your competition something is seriously wrong. That and the decreasing fuel prices which are bound to be welcome relief for these companies.
Obviously they weren't securing the contracts with the big boys that mattered.

custardy

shortchanged wrote: »

Makes you wonder what has gone wrong in an ever increasing market. The competition must be getting intense but when you have pants companies like Yodel as your competition something is seriously wrong. That and the decreasing fuel prices which are bound to be welcome relief for these companies.
Obviously they weren't securing the contracts with the big boys that mattered.

Margins are tight.
Yodel wins on price and working 'most' of the time.
The pressure is on carriers to meet the continuing demands of the changing market.
Look at Next with its order by midnight for delivery the next day to store. That requires very late collection set ups.
Tracking solutions such as DPDs need huge investment.

Generali

This is just capitalism. The contracts will have value and will need drivers etc. to service them.

Another firm will buy out or win the contracts and most or all of the drivers will get work.

If you run a company badly it goes bust.

It's sad for the employees but they'll get other work or be retained by the liquidator/receiver.

ruggedtoast

They were a pretty terrible courier company.

notanewuser

2 things. Best to announce today when they aren't taking any parcels. Tomorrow online orders will start being sent and it would be carnage.

Secondly, my husband has done some IT work for them in the past and has said for a long time that they wouldn't last. They've spent nothing on their systems for years.

wymondham

Generali wrote: »

If you run a company badly it goes bust.

... unless its a bank!

bugslet

shortchanged wrote: »

Makes you wonder what has gone wrong in an ever increasing market. The competition must be getting intense but when you have pants companies like Yodel as your competition something is seriously wrong. That and the decreasing fuel prices which are bound to be welcome relief for these companies.
Obviously they weren't securing the contracts with the big boys that mattered.

Fecreasing fuel prices may not help that much. Most companies have some sort of fuel escalator built in, where your delivery charge reflects the changing cost of the fuel.

shortchanged_2

bugslet wrote: »

Fecreasing fuel prices may not help that much. Most companies have some sort of fuel escalator built in, where your delivery charge reflects the changing cost of the fuel.

Surely a better chance of better margins though.