:(
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 12:46 am
So. Rant time.
Hands up who has heard the news about First Quench Retailing (Trading under the name of Threshers)?
Thresher Group, run by FQR, went into Administration on short notice (or more or less no notice in fact), on Thursday 29th October.
This covers Threshers, The Local, Haddows, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine.
Where does Vard work?
Wine Rack.
My current situation is pretty shite, if I'm being honest. We were told there would be some shop closures across the nation, as KPMG (the Administrator group assigned to FQR) are attempting to push Threshers on as a Going Concern, retaining Assets (i.e: staff and stock) wherever possible, and in doing so they want to close roughly 400 of the nation's existing 1200 shops - simply to help make the remaining lump item slightly easier for someone to buy.
Two of those shops, it came through to us last Thursday, are Wine Rack in Marlborough (my base), and Wine Rack in Hungerford (my extension). Closing dates for the above are November 25th and December 2nd, respectively.
They've no intention of trying to place existing staff at closure shops whatsoever, it's no skin off their nose, is how they're seeing it. There was no real effort to let staff know that things were dire either, in fact for the last six months, Media speculation about FQR's continued future has been completely countered in the staff bulletins. They told us over and over that everything was dandy, that there was nothing to worry about.
The reason for this? They simply didn't want to exaccerbate their position by having half their staff looking for other jobs. So in fact, they didn't give two tin shits about what became of their staff, they just didn't want to generate a rats-from-a-sinking-ship effect.
So how did Vard find out about his imminent job loss? Teletext.
*Vard waits for ZXRworld's collective users to finish sucking air through their clenched teeth*
Thank you.
Furthermore, they still haven't told us in so many words quite what the effect of the shop closures will be on the staff of those shops effected, and in particular, their employment status. They just kinda told us that our shop would be closing, and let us just extrapolate what that meant about our jobs as a result.
*Vard waits again*
Not really cricket, is it?
The really cunning thing is that they've decided to call it a day, not more than a month after our annual Holiday entitlement expired, at the end of September/ start of October, so anything we would otherwise have been able to claim there, has also been lost, and we now get oh, great, maybe two days of holiday payment, which we have to apply to the Government for.
KPMG are also not offering any kind of Redundancy policy, not even Final Salary, which they have closed forthwith upon sliding FQR into Administration quietly. So anyone who is eligible for Redundancy packages of any kind, have to in fact also apply to the Government to try to secure the Statuatory Redundancy of £pittence. 16 years my boss has been in the Marlborough shop, and 6 years before that with Threshers, even before FQR. Not fucking on.
So now, I have *glances at shiny new Seiko Perpetual watch* exactly two weeks of gainful employment at the hands of Threshers remaining, after which, *Vard makes a bird shape with his hands, and mimes it flying away*.
Fukkit.
I'm not even so worried about the closure - I was going to be looking for a new job in the new year anyway, so I wasn't going to be too attached to this job forever. That said, I was hoping to be able to do so at my own pace, without the fire under my butt - that this news has set a spark to, burning.
It's now also the right season for Uni students to come back and take up all the Christmas Temp jobs, so it's unlikely I'll even have luck for the immediate couple of months.
On the up-side of this, I'm looking at the immediate future and thinking that it would be nice, for the first time in four years, to have all of December off, while my friends are back for the Christmas period. Ordinarily, I'd be working my furry butt off as the shop would be busy. However, this year I can be guaranteed it won't be busy come Christmas, so I may well have time enough to see most of them and catch up. That'll be nice.
They'll be buying the drinks, though.
Ok, that's the light hearted part of this rant done.
The real kick in the slats for me now, comes in the form of money (of course it does).
I can't justify now having two projects on the go, and I have been looking into getting a little runaround car for the winter, to get me off the bike as a commuter for a handful of reasons;
a) It's wet. I don't like wet.
b) It's windy. I don't like windy.
c) It's slippery. I don't liks slippery.
d) The bike is ill. HGF is meaning I'm reluctant to ride it, lest it should give properly.
e) It's absolutely knackering my lower back, having to commute 20 miles each day on a sports bike.
So. It's now a choice between keeping my Vitesse, and selling the ZXR, or keeping the ZXR and scrapping the Vit.
Posting on here, you would expect to know what my answer to that would be.
It's the Vitesse. All day long, every day.
The bike is wonderful and brilliant fun, and it's a difficult decision, but ultimately, the Vitesse means more to me, and I'm halfway through my engine rebuild and upgrading. Making the decision to either leave it in Belgium or have it shipped back was made in minute measures of a second. This one took longer, but it's still the same outcome in the end.
So now I need to sell my ZXR, much though it pains me to do so, as I do love it.
Recessions. They bite. Hard.
Now you must excuse me, I have a bottle of spiced rum that's still calling to me to be finished off.
Vard out.
Hands up who has heard the news about First Quench Retailing (Trading under the name of Threshers)?
Thresher Group, run by FQR, went into Administration on short notice (or more or less no notice in fact), on Thursday 29th October.
This covers Threshers, The Local, Haddows, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine.
Where does Vard work?
Wine Rack.
My current situation is pretty shite, if I'm being honest. We were told there would be some shop closures across the nation, as KPMG (the Administrator group assigned to FQR) are attempting to push Threshers on as a Going Concern, retaining Assets (i.e: staff and stock) wherever possible, and in doing so they want to close roughly 400 of the nation's existing 1200 shops - simply to help make the remaining lump item slightly easier for someone to buy.
Two of those shops, it came through to us last Thursday, are Wine Rack in Marlborough (my base), and Wine Rack in Hungerford (my extension). Closing dates for the above are November 25th and December 2nd, respectively.
They've no intention of trying to place existing staff at closure shops whatsoever, it's no skin off their nose, is how they're seeing it. There was no real effort to let staff know that things were dire either, in fact for the last six months, Media speculation about FQR's continued future has been completely countered in the staff bulletins. They told us over and over that everything was dandy, that there was nothing to worry about.
The reason for this? They simply didn't want to exaccerbate their position by having half their staff looking for other jobs. So in fact, they didn't give two tin shits about what became of their staff, they just didn't want to generate a rats-from-a-sinking-ship effect.
So how did Vard find out about his imminent job loss? Teletext.
*Vard waits for ZXRworld's collective users to finish sucking air through their clenched teeth*
Thank you.
Furthermore, they still haven't told us in so many words quite what the effect of the shop closures will be on the staff of those shops effected, and in particular, their employment status. They just kinda told us that our shop would be closing, and let us just extrapolate what that meant about our jobs as a result.
*Vard waits again*
Not really cricket, is it?
The really cunning thing is that they've decided to call it a day, not more than a month after our annual Holiday entitlement expired, at the end of September/ start of October, so anything we would otherwise have been able to claim there, has also been lost, and we now get oh, great, maybe two days of holiday payment, which we have to apply to the Government for.
KPMG are also not offering any kind of Redundancy policy, not even Final Salary, which they have closed forthwith upon sliding FQR into Administration quietly. So anyone who is eligible for Redundancy packages of any kind, have to in fact also apply to the Government to try to secure the Statuatory Redundancy of £pittence. 16 years my boss has been in the Marlborough shop, and 6 years before that with Threshers, even before FQR. Not fucking on.
So now, I have *glances at shiny new Seiko Perpetual watch* exactly two weeks of gainful employment at the hands of Threshers remaining, after which, *Vard makes a bird shape with his hands, and mimes it flying away*.
Fukkit.
I'm not even so worried about the closure - I was going to be looking for a new job in the new year anyway, so I wasn't going to be too attached to this job forever. That said, I was hoping to be able to do so at my own pace, without the fire under my butt - that this news has set a spark to, burning.
It's now also the right season for Uni students to come back and take up all the Christmas Temp jobs, so it's unlikely I'll even have luck for the immediate couple of months.
On the up-side of this, I'm looking at the immediate future and thinking that it would be nice, for the first time in four years, to have all of December off, while my friends are back for the Christmas period. Ordinarily, I'd be working my furry butt off as the shop would be busy. However, this year I can be guaranteed it won't be busy come Christmas, so I may well have time enough to see most of them and catch up. That'll be nice.
They'll be buying the drinks, though.
Ok, that's the light hearted part of this rant done.
The real kick in the slats for me now, comes in the form of money (of course it does).
I can't justify now having two projects on the go, and I have been looking into getting a little runaround car for the winter, to get me off the bike as a commuter for a handful of reasons;
a) It's wet. I don't like wet.
b) It's windy. I don't like windy.
c) It's slippery. I don't liks slippery.
d) The bike is ill. HGF is meaning I'm reluctant to ride it, lest it should give properly.
e) It's absolutely knackering my lower back, having to commute 20 miles each day on a sports bike.
So. It's now a choice between keeping my Vitesse, and selling the ZXR, or keeping the ZXR and scrapping the Vit.
Posting on here, you would expect to know what my answer to that would be.
It's the Vitesse. All day long, every day.
The bike is wonderful and brilliant fun, and it's a difficult decision, but ultimately, the Vitesse means more to me, and I'm halfway through my engine rebuild and upgrading. Making the decision to either leave it in Belgium or have it shipped back was made in minute measures of a second. This one took longer, but it's still the same outcome in the end.
So now I need to sell my ZXR, much though it pains me to do so, as I do love it.
Recessions. They bite. Hard.
Now you must excuse me, I have a bottle of spiced rum that's still calling to me to be finished off.
Vard out.
, never met a traffic jam , arrived at work with a 
and got home with a 