Britain's biggest and oldest on brink of bankruptcy!

[bkkandrew]

Any Brit knows that moving house is synonimous with Pickfords, but now they appear to be the latest victim of the slump...

Crisis at Pickfords puts 1,300 jobs at risk - Times Online

Pickfords, Britain's oldest and largest removals company, is on the verge of a fire sale to avoid a financial crisis that would put up to 1,300 jobs at risk, The Times has learnt.

The loss-making company is trying to sell some or all of its business as it seeks to secure additional funding to help to pay staff and creditors.
If it failed, Pickfords would become the first high-profile British casualty from the slowdown in the UK housing market and the collapse of the American property sector.

Pickfords, which is registered in Britain as Sirva UK Limited, managed to pay its January wage bill two weeks ago with a £350,000 cash injection from Sirva Inc, its troubled American parent, according to company filings. Pickfords' US parent, part-owned by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the private equity firm, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, adding to the pressure on the UK business to find a cash injection to keep Pickfords afloat while it seeks a buyer.

Pickfords, which dates back to a 17th-century Pickford family packhorse business, is suffering from what its American parent called “significant short-term cash obligations. If a solution is not found to the short-term funding requirement, the directors of Sirva UK Limited must consider filing for an appropriate UK insolvency procedure.”

[bkkandrew]

Meanwhile in the US, GM loses $39 BILLION!

General Motors steps up job cuts as it suffers $39bn loss - Business News, Business - Independent.co.uk

General Motors, which lost its claim to be the world's biggest car maker in 2007, is planning a new wave of voluntary redundancies in a bid to cut costs in its loss-making US business.


An agreement with the United Auto Workers union (UAW) on redundancy packages for its 74,000 members was reached yesterday, just in time to mitigate news of another sharp downturn in the North American market.

General Motors (GM) posted a $38.7bn (£19.7bn) loss for 2007, its worst on record, in a set of results filled with restructuring charges, accounting adjustments and one-off tax gains.

Losing $39 Billion eh? I hope they have looked down the back of the sofa before they gave up looking for it!

[Norton]

General Motors, which lost its claim to be the world's biggest car maker in 2007, is planning a new wave of voluntary redundancies in a bid to cut costs in its loss-making US business.

The big loss is a bummer no doubt but note GM Stocks went up as investors finally see they are beginning to address problems that have been plaguing them for years. High cost of US labor and union pensions specifically. For the first time in their history, GM sold more cars outside the US than inside. They clearly plan to move most of their operations abroad. Suppose their friend Michael Moore will be prompted to do a piece on GM again.

[Marmite the Dog]

High cost of US labor

It's pretty ridiculous to expect to be competitive in heavy manufacturing nowadays. I'm surprised they didn't move the manufacturing away from the US years ago.

[barbaro]

High cost of US labor

It's pretty ridiculous to expect to be competitive in heavy manufacturing nowadays. I'm surprised they didn't move the manufacturing away from the US years ago.

It seems the US auto industry is one of the last ones to change.

The workers at Ford, GM, and other auto companies knew this was coming over 20 years ago.