Trouble for the Big Guys

Share This Post

Sadly for over nearly 3,000 workers, Christmas was not a enjoyable time. The courier company City Link went into administration on Christmas eve. Unless a last minute rescue package is found, they look set to be made redundant by new years day. For those who have used City Link to send their parcels, customers are being urged to collect parcels from depots on Monday. The companies online tracking system will tell you where the parcel is. If you have used them to send numerous parcels far away, I'm afraid you face many miles to go and get them back.

City Link was founded in 1969, and had been acquired by restructuring specialist Better Capital for just £1 in 2013. The company had been running at a lost for some time. It had recently upgraded its fleet on yellow and green vans to Mercedes Sprinters, but this had come at a huge price. It was also in a difficult sector in the parcel industry. I send 40 to 50 parcels each month, but only used City Link twice in three years. Their prices were too high compared to similar companies and drivers would turn up hours after the allocated collection time.

Another company facing a worrying time is the chocolate maker, Thorntons. It's retail outlets had been doing well in the run up to Christmas, but its new centralised warehouse in Derbyshire, had major teething problems that had created delivery issues. Online sales had been heavily hit. The company had already started a store closure programme which shut half of its 350 shops, this lead to 500 jobs being lost over the past four years, at the moment they still employ almost 4,000 people and made a pre-tax profit of £5.97m in its last financial year.

For more info about us, please view: www.lrbtrophies.co.uk

 

More To Explore