Channel Television had this report:
Jersey's party store Horseplay and The Luggage Shop have closed after their parent company went into liquidation. Six members of staff have lost their jobs....
They then put it into the wrong context, that of 101 Toys closing down, and support within the Island for small businesses. Why is that the wrong context? Because the reason they have closed has nothing to do with local profitability, but everything to do with the problems of the much larger parent company, of which they were a small subsidiary.
My son put his finger on the real question this raises when he asked where you could get costumes and joke novelty items now that Horseplay is closed. The answer, of course, is that there are other retailers, albeit not as large, which sell these kind of items. Fancy dress costumes, for example, can be obtained from downstairs at the Hallmark Card shop at Les Quennevais, and I am sure there are other outlets for jokes and costumes. Even if there were not, it would not be the end of the world. We could cope without joke items, or get them via the internet.
But the real question - what happens when the parent company closes, and the subsidiary then closes down as well, is an important one to consider, and not one given any time by Philip Ozouf in his soundbites on CTV. Some companies could close without great problems, because their goods or services are duplicated elsewhere, or are part of an optional nice market. But others are not, and as more and more local businesses are becoming controlled from UK parent groups, Jersey and Guernsey's exposure to these kinds of collapses becomes more probable.
What would happen, for example, if Connex went bust, and the Island found itself suddenly with no bus company? Or in Guernsey, if Cable and Wireless went down, and suddenly all the cabling infrastructure was on hold? Or Sandpiper (the Cheques / M&S) outlet had difficulties, and we lost one large chain of supermarkets, with extra pressure on the others?
When I discussed this, someone said that companies like Connex or Cable and Wireless were large companies, and C&W has a global outreach.
But large companies can and do suddenly go down, if overextended, and having loans called in - just look at Enron, which collapsed overnight, and took down with it a good deal of Arthur Andersen, which blew apart into fragments. From a high of 28,000 employees in the US and 85,000 worldwide, the firm is now down to around 200 based primarily in Chicago. Most of their attention is on handling the lawsuits and presiding over the orderly dissolution of the company.
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hLBG_kiEtHMGOXVIMcOe-6zZxYdw
Jersey's party store Horseplay and The Luggage Shop have closed after their parent company went into liquidation. Six members of staff have lost their jobs....
They then put it into the wrong context, that of 101 Toys closing down, and support within the Island for small businesses. Why is that the wrong context? Because the reason they have closed has nothing to do with local profitability, but everything to do with the problems of the much larger parent company, of which they were a small subsidiary.
My son put his finger on the real question this raises when he asked where you could get costumes and joke novelty items now that Horseplay is closed. The answer, of course, is that there are other retailers, albeit not as large, which sell these kind of items. Fancy dress costumes, for example, can be obtained from downstairs at the Hallmark Card shop at Les Quennevais, and I am sure there are other outlets for jokes and costumes. Even if there were not, it would not be the end of the world. We could cope without joke items, or get them via the internet.
But the real question - what happens when the parent company closes, and the subsidiary then closes down as well, is an important one to consider, and not one given any time by Philip Ozouf in his soundbites on CTV. Some companies could close without great problems, because their goods or services are duplicated elsewhere, or are part of an optional nice market. But others are not, and as more and more local businesses are becoming controlled from UK parent groups, Jersey and Guernsey's exposure to these kinds of collapses becomes more probable.
What would happen, for example, if Connex went bust, and the Island found itself suddenly with no bus company? Or in Guernsey, if Cable and Wireless went down, and suddenly all the cabling infrastructure was on hold? Or Sandpiper (the Cheques / M&S) outlet had difficulties, and we lost one large chain of supermarkets, with extra pressure on the others?
When I discussed this, someone said that companies like Connex or Cable and Wireless were large companies, and C&W has a global outreach.
But large companies can and do suddenly go down, if overextended, and having loans called in - just look at Enron, which collapsed overnight, and took down with it a good deal of Arthur Andersen, which blew apart into fragments. From a high of 28,000 employees in the US and 85,000 worldwide, the firm is now down to around 200 based primarily in Chicago. Most of their attention is on handling the lawsuits and presiding over the orderly dissolution of the company.
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hLBG_kiEtHMGOXVIMcOe-6zZxYdw
Shares in Cable & Wireless fell amid speculation the group had delayed plans to split its UK and international businesses. It had been widely rumoured that the telecoms giant was planning an imminent break-up after C&W said in May that it was "demonstrating the necessary momentum" for it to consider the next steps towards realising shareholder value. The market was expecting an announcement alongside its interim results on November 10, but C&W's board is reportedly unwilling to make the move in light of the global financial crisis. A newspaper report over the weekend suggested the demerger could be delayed until next year... Shares fell more than 4% at one stage on Monday as investor hopes faded for a demerger before next spring or summer at the earliest. Jonathan Groocock, analyst at Investec Securities, said: "In uncertain markets and poor credit conditions, it would not be overly surprising if the demerger is delayed. But we believe greater uncertainty on the one key catalyst for C&W shares may be harshly treated by the market."
http://www.theage.com.au/national/easier-penalties-tipped-for-operators-20081027-59tb.html
In the year to June, Connex paid more than $33 million in fines [in Mebourne] for cancellations and late services.... Connex and Yarra Trams' contracts expire on December 1 next year.
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