Businesses in financial trouble

[FN-GM]

Once all those people are flown back, there should be a silver lining to Thomas Cook's collapse: lower fuel emissions for a few months.

 

They have had to move lots of aircraft around for the rescue. eg A gas guzzling A380 flew empty from Malaysia and will need to be returned. Also all the old TC planes will need shuffling around so might not be as good as it sounds.

[mavhc]

They have had to move lots of aircraft around for the rescue. eg A gas guzzling A380 flew empty from Malaysia and will need to be returned. Also all the old TC planes will need shuffling around so might not be as good as it sounds.

 

Just add a 110% of the cost of cleaning up pollution tax to anything that pollutes, problem solved.

[crc-ict]

Gov can start a company, call it Oceanic Airlines or something, buy the planes, hire the same pilots, fly everyone home, and then sell it all again, problem solved. And now all your planes are in 1 place for ease of inspection by the new buyer

 

You really think that is going to be able to happen quickly enough, and be viable to do, for a 2 week repatriation exercise starting with not even overnight notice?

 

Just add a 110% of the cost of cleaning up pollution tax to anything that pollutes, problem solved.

 

And how exactly do you 'clean up' pollution from an aircraft?

 

You really do live in cloud-cuckoo land.

Edited September 26, 2019 by crc-ict

[Andrew_C]

Just add a 110% of the cost of cleaning up pollution tax to anything that pollutes, problem solved.

And the first result is that it becomes easier for the increasingly fascist govts world wide to demonize "those dirty foreigners" if we aren't meeting them. The world, I thought for a while, was getting more interconnected and nicer.

[elsiegee40]

All EduGeeks are reminded that personal insults are not to be traded in threads on EduGeek no matter how much someone else has frustrated you.

 

Stick to the facts and report posts that you feel are out of line.

 

Let the mods deal with it.

 

[mavhc]

You really think that is going to be able to happen quickly enough, and be viable to do, for a 2 week repatriation exercise starting with not even overnight notice?

 

 

 

And how exactly do you 'clean up' pollution from an aircraft?

 

You really do live in cloud-cuckoo land.

 

Not like you have to build the planes, it's an entirely paper exercise. You just sign the bit of paper that says you run it now, and everyone keeps working as they did yesterday.

 

Who knows how to clean up the pollution, that's why it'll be really expensive to start with, let's say £1 million per flight, and then people will be super incentivised to find a cheaper solution.

 

But in general you remove the same amount of pollution from the air somewhere else in the world, so it balances out.

[bald_pig]

Not like you have to build the planes, it's an entirely paper exercise. You just sign the bit of paper that says you run it now, and everyone keeps working as they did yesterday.

 

Who knows how to clean up the pollution, that's why it'll be really expensive to start with, let's say £1 million per flight, and then people will be super incentivised to find a cheaper solution.

 

But in general you remove the same amount of pollution from the air somewhere else in the world, so it balances out.

 

Everything will just go back to sea travel, the prices of everything will go up to account for the delay in shipping, and the waters will be polluted by tankers even more.

 

Sounds like a great plan...

[mikeprice]

It should be possible to be more prepared for things

 

maybe a company could be set up as an airline but have no aircraft (remind you of an ferry companies helping out with Brexit???)

 

anyway - in the event of a collapse they could be legally allowed to take over any leases on a short term basis - assuming the planes are in contributing countries

they could also 'rent'(??) any owned aircraft from the liquidators on the same basis

and in the same way - take over the employment contract of the necessary airline staff

 

just how hard can it be if the political will exists to force the leasing companies and such to allow the extension in return for getting money they would otherwise have to fight for

[LeMarchand]

Everything will just go back to sea travel, the prices of everything will go up to account for the delay in shipping, and the waters will be polluted by tankers even more.

 

Sounds like a great plan...

 

There's only one solution, and when Moggie takes over from BoJo, I'm sure he'd approve.

 

[FishCustard]

The Transport Sec has announced plans to simplify situations like these by allowing insolvent airlines to be wound down gracefully (allowing planes to fly for as long as necessary to bring people home). Eminently sensible in my view.

 

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/thomas-cook-transport-secretary-hints-at-airline-insolvency-reforms-19439

[srochford]

Not sure that Alexander Dennis would accept that Wrightbus was the last UK bus manufacturer! Unlike Wrightbus they make rather good buses - if they'd got the London contract I suspect they'd have changed the design to something which works (and perhaps didn't cost about 40% more than a standard bus)

 

Steve

[mavhc]

The Transport Sec has announced plans to simplify situations like these by allowing insolvent airlines to be wound down gracefully (allowing planes to fly for as long as necessary to bring people home). Eminently sensible in my view.

 

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/thomas-cook-transport-secretary-hints-at-airline-insolvency-reforms-19439

 

Glad to see people are listening to me.

 

Also shipping by sea would have similar taxes. Sea is better than planes in general though, so should be less taxes. Unless it turns out you're dumping all the pollution in the ocean, then of course you'll have to be shot.

[6Foot2]

Link: Pizza Express lining up for painful debt restructuring [The Guardian]

 

Pizza Express appears destined for a debt restructuring that could bruise its lenders, as sources with knowledge of the situation played down concerns it was in serious financial difficulty.

 

The pizza chain is reportedly in early talks to refinance two tranches of borrowing worth a combined £665m, part of a debt pile that had reached £1.1bn by the end of December 2018.

 

Pizza Express, which has not been immune to the deepening malaise in the casual dining sector, paid out £93m in interest payments in 2018, a year in which it reported a pre-tax loss of £55m loss, on sales of £543m.

 

About half of the interest payments are made to its Chinese parent company, Hony Capital. Founded in 1965, Pizza Express has 470 outlets in the UK, with a further 150 internationally and employs 14,000 people...

 

If Pizza Express DOES fold, will that make them Calzone Express?

 

 

Source: Too many tweets to count!

 

[LeMarchand]

Apparently Jessops were still trading (I know, I thought they had died a few years back) but not for much longer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50066623

[mikeprice]

Apparently Jessops were still trading (I know, I thought they had died a few years back) but not for much longer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50066623

 

Didn't Peter thingy from Dragon's Den take the name over and restart it as an online shop??

or something

[mavhc]

brand names are sold so fast we might as well stick to using company numbers to keep track of actual companies, then have a dns style system to find their current and alt names

[6Foot2]

Didn't Peter thingy from Dragon's Den take the name over and restart it as an online shop??

or something

 

Link: Dragon's Den star Peter Jones fighting to save future of Leicester founded Jessops [Leicestershire Live]

[LeMarchand]

WH Smith. How the heck are they still going? But it seems they're expanding into the US! https://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2019/10/whsmith-us-expansion

[mikeprice]

WH Smith. How the heck are they still going? But it seems they're expanding into the US! https://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2019/10/whsmith-us-expansion

 

I have to agree with you - we have one here and it is a good place to go for some peace and quiet

 

I am generally the only customer in there - and looking at the price of the birthday cards compared to Card Factory I'm not surprised!

[Dos_Box]

WH Smith. How the heck are they still going? But it seems they're expanding into the US! https://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2019/10/whsmith-us-expansion

 

It's like when you see a John Menzies at an airport and wonder why they aren't dead yet. Turns out they are doing rather well in the aviation support business!

[Arthur]

Mothercare to appoint administrators for UK chain, putting 2,500 jobs at risk

 

Mothercare is to appoint administrators for its UK high street chain, putting 2,500 jobs at risk.

 

The mother-and-baby-goods retailer said its UK retail operations, which comprise 79 stores, lost £36.3m last year and after a review it had become clear that the business would not return to profitability.

 

The move does not include Mothercare’s profitable overseas business, which has more than 1,000 stores in more than 40 countries. Mothercare said the UK administration filing was a “necessary step in the restructuring and refinancing of the group”.

[6Foot2]

Link: Clintons in survival talks over shop closures and rent cuts [bBC News]

 

Greetings card chain Clintons is considering shop closures and rent cuts as part of a survival plan.

 

The retailer, which has about 2,500 staff, is in restructuring talks with landlords in another sign of the High Street crisis.

 

A spokeswoman told the BBC no decisions have yet been made.

 

Clintons was responding to reports on Sunday that it wanted to close 66 out of 332 shops, with landlords slashing rents on most of the other stores.

 

The restructuring would involve a controversial scheme known as a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), an insolvency process that allows companies to continue trading while pushing through closures and rent cuts.

 

A Clintons spokeswoman said "discussions are continuing with our landlords but no decisions have been made"...

[DrCheese]

Not a surprise re: Clintons - My town has one around the corner from Card Factory, which is always rammed whereas clintons is empty, even towards Christmas. I guess high volume, low prices seems to work whereas clinton's is more expensive

[FishCustard]

And I suppose they're also losing high-value/low-volume trade to more mid-to-high-end stationers like Paperchase.

 

 

WH Smith. How the heck are they still going?

 

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/whsmith-high-street-success - they're actually doing very well indeed!

Edited November 13, 2019 by FishCustard

[mavhc]

Vertical integration of people who buy paper and people who post letters, by absorbing post offices