Austin Reed in administration

Notters said:

Pretty sure Woolworths was down to terrible management. Will never forget seeing a stack of Wigan Athletic calendars in the Western Road branch. Just because they were in the Prem probably didn't lead to a massive demand for them in Brighton! They also relied heavily on CDs.

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Woolies Western Road CD rack was a random MESS, like something out of a Middle Eastern bazaar. Stuff scattered everywhere. The last time I was in there would have been early1998 to buy 'Brimful Of Asha' by Cornershop feat. the remixes by our very own FBS (and the flat as a pancake unremixed original). Took the empty CD packet to the counter, Saturday girl rummaged around under the counter for C for Cornershop - and sent me home with the Cornershop album 'When I Was Born for the 7th Time' instead of the single. Doh!

Westdene Seagull said:

Blockbusters, Comet, Land of Leather, Borders Book Shops, Zavvi, Habitat, Threshers - all under Labour ( and that's just shops ).

On the positive side, Focus DIY went bust under the Tories so that must give them some credit. Vote Tory.

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When I have some time I'll search the net to find a further 8 shops which have gone bust under the Tories.

Herr Tubthumper said:

Always someone else's fault isn't it?

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In Tata's case it is - how do you propose that with a living wage of £7.20 and much higher power costs that the UK beats China on price ? Given price will generally be the over riding factor for most purchasers.

Herr Tubthumper said:

When I have some time I'll search the net to find a further 8 shops which have gone bust under the Tories.

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So you agree that many businesses go bust under either party government and that your original post was just a political dig with your red tinted spectacles on then ?

Herr Tubthumper said:

Always someone else's fault isn't it?

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All of Labours f@@k ups are according to you

Westdene Seagull said:

In Tata's case it is - how do you propose that with a living wage of £7.20 and much higher power costs that the UK beats China on price ? Given price will generally be the over riding factor for most purchasers.

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"Dumping" on another market is something that cannot be really stopped without putting trade restrictions in place.

What China are doing isn't about lower operating costs... its about covering your fixed overheads with profit from one market and then selling additional volume in a second market at a price which just covers the incremental costs of the extra production. So if profit on steel sales to the Far and Middle East have covered the costs of the factories and staff but you have extra capacity, then you can "dump" steel on the European market for just the cost of raw materials (Iron Ore, Carbon and Energy). If European companies are selling in that market at a price that needs to contribute to the costs of factories and staff then they can't compete.

If the EU sign a trade agreement with China which allows them to do this, then Steel manufacturers based in the EU are f*cked trying to sell to other EU states. If however, the EU heavily taxed imports of Steel from China, artificially inflating the price to a level that EU manufacturers could compete with, then the EU manufacturers don't go bust.

The only other answer is to start a trade war, you "dump" steel on China's other markets so that they no longer make the profit needed to allow them to "dump" on your core market. Everyone changes their global pricing strategies and a truce is called in the form of a Trade Agreement.

Choosing to pay your staff above a minimum wage or even a living wage actually has very little effect if you are in a globalised industry, micro-economic factors get dwarfed by the macro-economic ones.

Notters said:

Pretty sure Woolworths was down to terrible management. Will never forget seeing a stack of Wigan Athletic calendars in the Western Road branch. Just because they were in the Prem probably didn't lead to a massive demand for them in Brighton! They also relied heavily on CDs.

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A lot of the problem for Woolies was caused by split from the Kingfisher group. They inherited a lot of the debt and as a result, found themselves constantly battling tokeep things going as they were lmost constantly at their maximum overdraft limit but still needed to get funds to buy in the next set of stock (seasonal clothing ranges, xmas / easter stock, etc).

This led to poor staffing levels within the stores as they cut costs wherever they could (including no pay rises for staff for a couple of years before finally going bust) but this lack of staff also contributed to losses because of theft (lack of staff to catch people) people who couldn't find what they wanted or a member of staff to help / serve them quickly at the till and also that their higher profit margin stock (Kids clothing) was often stuck in their stockroom rather than out on the shop floor due to a lack of staff and when finally brought down, they were so desperate for money, they often sold it off with a massive discount (often at a loss) just to get the money out of it so that they could afford the next consignment of stock.

Music and film promotions were frequently sent into stores where the staff had to remove the discs and file it so it could go out for a 3 week promotion, it would then be recalled so they could get the capital out of it to by the next promotion titles in, (filed, etc) only for the returned titles to be send back a couple of weeks later to be used for a new promotion again - cash was that tight

BensGrandad said:

Surely this is another company suffering from on line shopping which is hitting all high street shops and is just down to a change in shopping habits.

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One of the key points noted in the failure of Austin Reed is that their website was very poor which stopped people shopping on line.

Chances are, the name of Austin Reed will continue in menswear as it still holds some historical weight but it will end up being part of Moss Bros and their 'named' brands.