Economics & Business

Pallet delivery and the road transport business in the recession

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:42:59 +0000

In 1996 Jempsons joined a pallet network to offer their customers an effective alternative to delivering their small palletised consignments in the UK. The consolidation of freight on to trunkers bound for distribution centres like PALLETFORCE in the midlands dramatically reduced costs and gave customers a fast reliable last minute delivery service they had not experienced before. This lead the way forward for businesses to release cash tied up in stock holding.

The improved door to door delivery service, often with a self off load facility at little or no extra cost meant the time span from order to delivery could be with in 24 hours. The internet provided the consumer a wider range of goods at their finger tips at any time of day. The chances of success in finding what they wanted was greater than time spend hunting the high streets. All this had a huge impact on PALLETFORCE and networks alike and growth was seen at 20-25% plus for many years. However saturation with more networks and the recession taking hold pretty much brought growth to a halt.

Much of Jempsons pallet delivery service is consumer lead and the effect of the recession could be gauged quite early on having experienced about a 25% drop in movement since 2008. Where surges of freight was relatively easy to predict, apart from the usual Easter rush etc, the weekly/month trends were more variable, and lead us to believe that with credit not so readily available, consumers would leave purchasing until they had funds available or order last minute to obtain the best deal. (more…)

Credit crunch to hit Travel industry

admin — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:13:59 +0000

The Travel Weekly blog reports on how the credit crunch may affect the Travel industry in 2008.

The credit crunch, alongside several other negative economic factors, will contribute enormously towards a difficult trading year for the travel industry, but neither trade nor consumer publications appear to be focusing on the top end of the market, which can often be less susceptible to changing conditions - a market segment which has come to see travel as a necessity.

According to the post, top end travel operators such as Mark Warner and Sovereign Luxury Holidays (part of TUI Travel), should be less affected by the predicted drop in consumer spending.

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Wraggle advising Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance

admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:46:38 +0000

According to Legal Week, Wragge & Co is advising Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance on a £27m bridging facility and £29m refinancing to fund Contracting Solutions Group’s (CSG’s) recommended cash offer for Lorien, a rival IT company.

LTSBCF offer a range of commercial finance solutions for businesses of various sizes including asset based lending, factoring, and invoice discounting.
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Fight for engineering staff

admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:16:56 +0000

“Homecoming Revolution is a non-profit organization, sponsored by First National Bank, aimed at encouraging and helping South Africans living abroad to return home.”

That’s the opening line from the Homecoming Revolution website. With thousands of South African’s existing as economic migrants on the UK and elsewhere in Europe, HR welcomed 1200 visitors last week at their recruitment show in London.

Acording to the SA Times:

Engineering companies, including Bateman Engineering, Grinaker LTA, Group 5 and Murray & Roberts attended, hoping to meet engineers — but to no avail.

Schaffer said: “The hardest sector to fill is engineering and construction. There is a worldwide shortage.”

Meanwhile, recruiters in the UK aren’t giving up the fight easy, with thousands of jobs in engineering available in the UK.
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