The announcement by new owners the Darwen Group that East Lancs is to shed a fifth or more of its workforce has come as something of a surprise.
This indicates the potential scale of the problem potentially still facing East Lancs six weeks after the take-over. It also indicates that even though some bus manufacturers are experiencing solid order books, the industry is still potentially fragile.
Darwen stated in mid-August that all jobs were safe.
And new owners Darwen are apparently not ruling out a move of site, either within the Blackburn or indeed to the north east, home to Darwen’s Tanfield Group.
The British bus manufacturing industry has been through a great deal of pain in the last 30 years. In hindsight, with the continual decline in passenger numbers, this was inevitable. Let’s trust that the Darwen Group has the foresight now to secure its long-term future. We need to retain a diverse, competitive and strong manufacturing capacity.
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Pain for Gain?
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4 comments:
Don't hold your breath about the future for East lancs. I've always been a strong supporter of what is a local business, but the way they have handled the recent events is apalling.
Announcements of job security quickly followed by 30% redundancy; strong local rumours of a move to the northe east, destroying further local jobs.
And big questions over the speed at which the business was bought from receivership hints at a deal having already been made before things went ape.
Pity about the businesses owed money by East Lancs who were left with nothing as the creditors debt was reportedly not part of the deal. I've experienced that one at first hand and believe me, it's the bit that really stinks!
It will be interesting to see just how things develop from here.
Also I would imagine that a lot of companies will just lose faith in ELC. B&H Buses have been loyal ELC customers since I can remember, and have got over a hundred Omnidekkas alone.
They have ordered another 15 or so, all of which were due to arrive in July, then August, then September and now October. About 5 have arrived, the rest are still at East Lancs.
B&H have also tested a lot of alternatives, such as the Enviro400, buses from Optare and also Wright.
At the end of the day B&H Buses have ordered the buses for a reason and need them. If ELC can't supply them, which it seems after nearly 4 months they still can't, they will *have* to take their business elsewhere.
It isn't good business sense to invest money in buses that might not arrive just for the sake of nostalgia.
Darwin / East Lancs will obviously suffer problems with suppliers now - the chassis that they are due to body for Delaine was removed when they went into administration and has yet to return: would you trust them again if it was your property on their premises?
Darwen Group plc is the subject of a discussion thread within the Free Bulletin Board (fbb) at financial/investors website advfn.com
The thread header includes a link to Omnibuses blog, and discussion within the thread includes content from Omnibuses blog.
This link will (I think) give read-only access http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=16559235 (late evening access is easiest). If link fails, try searching DHP via the 'epic' box on the fbb.
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