Oh well the New Year is off and the first company to go is Uskvale Conservatories, apparently they actually ceased trading just before Christmas, it’s not a pleasant time for any of us at the moment, it seems that the whole industry is struggling.

Truth be known if I’d of heard this news this time last year I’d of been jumping with joy, but it just feels like oh well there goes another. I’ll have a chat witha few of the lads that worked there and try and update this story a bit more.

Uskvale were a signs of the times sort of happening, quite a good company truth be known, however they were the biggest culprits to slagging off the competition all the time, well this time it’s you that have actually truthfully gone bust!!

But no sower grapes it’s a sad state of affairs who knows what this year will bring all I hope is that the market starts to pick up a little and we can start seeing the leads increasing, but for now good bye Uskvale will we see you again in some other form who knows, but trust me when Isay it’s a tough market out there and getting tougher, do you really want the hassle!!

This whole Woolworths thing has really made me think about alot of things the store I used to foundly remember getting lost in as a kid may be about to close, I don’t think all of it will close but here are some of my thonughts as to what I think may be happening and what has happened…

You can bet your bottom dollar there are offers on the table for Woolworths’ I think the administrators are just negotiating with peoples futures, they haven’t go the deal they want so they just saying to companies up your offer or we’ll shut it down. Yes there are alot of quiet stores out there, but there is also alot of busy ones, in the end the quiet ones eat the profits of the smaller and then it’s in trouble.

 We are all to blame anyway, always wanting cheaper and cheaper prices, letting the supermarkets chains get too powerful selling everything from Milk to Car Insurance, what do we expect, we’ll we wanted choices and we got it, we chose to buy things cheaper from supermarkets and the internet that’s the cold hard truth. Our choices effect the nations workers, we chose cheap 4 pound pairs of jeans and then chirped on about young children working abroad to make clothes  in sweat houses, we still wanted the four pound jeans though!!!!

 We’re not prepared to pay the prices to keep English workers in work well now our greed for cheap prices has killed our manufacturing and retail business in the U.K.  It’s time to ask yourself what do you stand for, do you stand for paying what the price should be to keep people in work or do we buy the cheap clothes and just shut our eyes to the poor kids who have to slave to make them.

 Either way we are all to blame.

Please Excuse the size of logo I’m awful with image sizes…..

I’m undecided sure there are alot of companies out there that do it regularly and repeatedly so yeah sure there are some scum bags in the double glazing industry, but surely no one sets out to fail -Do They?

I read other blogs and think what are we achieving, some companies have worked for years to build a brand and through economic conditions can no longer trade, some people would say bad management and they should of seen it coming, but how do you run a company in the current climate, if you’ve been trading for quite a few years and you need to downsize quickly you can’t just lay people off, there’s consultations for employees and redundancy payouts and if you’ve had people working for you for a long time this can run into tens of thousands of pounds, which inevitably would for most companies make it a non viable proposition.

If the companies go to speak to an accountant about the issues they inevitably tell the companies to liquidate and shed the staff to get the government to pay off the redundancies. Some MDs are loyal to there workforce who let’s face it alot of the time wouldn’t care who they worked for. Some MDs are just incredibly nice people, but do NICE companies survive in rocky climates or is it the structured ruthless companies that survive, people complain about Anglian, still surviving, Management style: profits first, employee second.

 SOME people are good people that get into bad situations, other people are scum bags, should they all be labelled with the same thing and should they both be put into a category of not to be trusted?

The scum bags should shut up shop, but should th nice guys be sent into the world as failures? I feel annoyed sometimes as I feel all companies are labelled the same if they fail they are all deemed as bad as the guy who does it as a regular thing.

My company was formed when another company went through, that company went through due to alot of factors, MD too nice didn’t want to lay people off costs got to high got taken for money, and went through.

Should this be the same as someone who runs up huge bills takes loads of deposits and then folds, other companies just start other companies leaving the other one live and wait for their suppliers to wind them up, which alot don’t do because it would cost them money to do it.

I suppose what I am saying are there legitimate phoenix companies? Or are we all Scum bags and should be labelled as such.

I’ve just been blown out of the water by an Anglian price, get this a 3.5 x 3.5 connie for eight thousand five hundred pounds!!! You may say, so they beat you fair and square, not so, I took a deal off them a few weeks back similar size connie they were 12k now where is it.

I appreciate your fitters around Wales are having a rough time, but if you keep selling things out for no money your going to be out of business again ( sorry cheap shot you’ve not been out of business yet) and the banks wont be able to bail you out this time.

I feel sorry for the poor customers out there who are actually paying 12k for one from you, do you have a pricing policy??? It just seems to be get it for what you can at the moment , a few suggestions, use a price book which:

1. Keeps you solvent
2. Pays your salesmen
3. Doesn’t increase when the surveyor gets there
4. And finally doesn’t de-value your product.

When you send out this mixed message it makes it feel like you have no faith in your product being worth what you are asking for it…

Get it sorted you’ve got alot of people who’s jobs you have to pay for, if you keep giving it away then you’re giving away their futures. To any customers thinking of buying from Anglian, wait for the 3rd phonecall, then if you want to buy from them they’ll of reached their bare minimum, just make sure to ask what frame you are getting, and if you’re happy, make them sign on the contract that this price will not go up on survey (this is VERY IMPORTANT).

I’m starting to feel sorry for these guys now!! When will the doom and gloom end for Anlian Home Improvements and more importantly how will it end, owned by the banks, cutting more staff, not paying the sales guys, customer confidence at an all time low (well I can only say for Wales).

These guys are certainly taking a battering and if it wasn’t for the amount of money they are into the banks for I think they would of gone into liquidation long ago.

But I really do feel sorry for the workers the guys that I have spoken to over the last few months are genuine guys who just want to make a living, and all of their jobs are in the firing line.

So in a way I want to say come on Anglian get it right!!!! And on the other hand……………………..

“Workers at city home improvements company Anglian Group are waiting on tenterhooks as talks continue over 94 planned redundancies.

Bosses at the company, which employs 810 in its manufacturing division in Norwich, announced the cuts in August, and while the firm is still seeking volunteers it is likely that many of the job losses will be compulsory redundancies.

A selection process to decide which staff are set to go is continuing and the first jobs to go could be announced by the end of the month.

In February it appeared Anglian workers in Norwich had been spared in an earlier round of redundancies in which 165 jobs were cut when a factory closed in Rochdale, Lancashire.

The company blamed both rounds of job losses on a downturn in consumer spending.

It is still unclear how many compulsory redundancies there will be in Norwich.

A spokeswoman for Anglian Home Improvements said: “The consultation process continues and the request for voluntary redundancies is ongoing. Therefore, we do not yet have a final figure regarding voluntary versus compulsory numbers.”

Union officials are continuing talks with company bosses, but Ivan Mercer, regional organiser for the GMB union, said it appeared the company was doing it all it could to avoid compulsory redundancies.

Mr Mercer added: “The company is asking for volunteers to come forward for redundancies. The redundancy criteria have been agreed and the company is provisionally selecting for redundancies.

“The company is doing as much as it can to mitigate compulsory redundancies but at the end of the day I am sure there are going to be an amount of compulsory redundancies.”

The company, which makes and fits conservatories, doors and windows, is not the first to be hit in the city with about 400 redundancies announced at Bowater Home Improvements – which traded as Zenish Staybrite – lost their jobs when the company went into administration in January.

Yesterday construction firm RG Carter announced plans for 97 redundancies among construction and joinery workers in Drayton.

Have you been made redundant at a Norwich firm or is your company expecting job cuts? Call Evening News business reporter Sam Williams on 01603 772447 or e-mail sam.williams@archant.co.uk”

Source: Evening News 24

Whilst I was chatting he kept coming back to the same thing “the customers just wouldn’t pay the money for his service and he kept coming up against the same companies, undercutting him all the time and the customers just wanted the cheaper price.”

After a little longer i asked him what he was charging and what he had to offer that other companies didn’t, he didn’t really have anything to say. I feel sorry for the guy, of course I do, but sometimes it’s just a case of if you don’t evolve and move with the times you are going to have a battle on your hands nowadays.

The worst thing he did was undersell his company, he thought the customer was just interested in price, I feel price is a big factor in the market place, but he put no value on a long established company, the customers just simply wanted a deal, they didn’t necessarily want the cheapest, but that’s what he thought would get him the deal, and so consequently he kept reducing his prices, in the end he was selling windows and not making any money.

I think I’ve learnt a bit from this: I’ve got a company which is profitable and will remain profitable because I refuse to undersell the worth of my company. Sure sometimes we have to negotiate a bit on some deals but everyone should be a winner . The customers get what they want for a good price and I get to make money which at the end of the day the customer would want, because what is the point of a customer buying cheap but having nowhere to turn in times of trouble.

If everyone in our industry stuck to our guns on pricing possibly we could all have a rosy future, but you all know as I do ther’ll be one or two out there, who think lets slash it and drag the market price down, they wont make any money doing it and will be busy fools.

Commets would be welcome but if not it’s my opinion anyway.

Andrew