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it is already affecting the car industry.
Not interested in turning this thread into a Political tit for tat, but this is incorrect.
If you are referring to either the issue with Jag/Land Rover or the recent announcement by Nissan.
The biggest effect in the last two years in the car industry which is the direct reason these companies are struggling is the new EU directive over diesel emissions.
Since that came in to place new car sales have plummeted partly because of the tax but also because they have failed to react in a positive manner, what the headlines don’t tell you though is quality second hand car sales (cars under 5 years)have exploded as a result.
Nissans announcement was also down to two major factors, plummeting sales worldwide but predominantly in the West, which they attribute to same emissions issue and the fact they already have a state of art factory building the X-trail oh and uncertainty over Brexit was mentioned as an as well.
You might want to read what they put out and not what the media reported then as that was not the reason given, it was clearly about loss of sales and the fact they have a part capacity in their existing plant, the Brexit comment was an added reason but certainly not the main reason as your post tried to suggest.
The main guy from Manchester came this evening to talk to us , he set the business up 14 years ago .
He was honest and straight and didn't try to hide away from anything .
Basically said that we were making £2m profit per annum up until 3 years ago and since then we've lost money , around 800k last year .
He's fought tooth and nail to keep it open with the bigger bosses .
He was confident we could return to profit but needed £50m of investment to do so and the big bosses weren't willing to back that .
He said it isn't failure because we have made the company alot of money apart from the last 3 years .
To demonstrate how tough this market is he told us we only make £15 on a washing machine , it's great for consumers , never had it so good but a nightmare for business on those kind of margins .
The hierarchy cut the marketing budget when we started to lose money and admitted it was an error , they felt customer loyalty would see them through because of our unique membership model but that proved not to be the case , a bitter pill to swallow were his words and held his hands up .
They have spent the last two years looking to sell the business but found it impossible because we don't have any assets as we rent the building and the amount of investment needed put potential buyers off .
He's out on his ear too along with his staff , absolutely no chance of the company deploying him either .
Sounded like he'd battled hard with them for the last 2 years and cracks had appeared in the relationship at that level making it difficult to stay on even if they wanted him to .
Understandable given this was his baby and passion .
Decent bloke , down to earth and none of this management buzz word bullshyte .
Respect to him for coming over this evening and standing on his own in front of 78 workers who he's had to put out of work , not many would have done that .
Thanked us for a remarkable effort given the investment that's gone in and the profit that was once made .
It is what it is , just got to get on with it now and find summat else .
I think it's also worth mentioning the 75% top up on our severance pay , the company didn't have to do that either .
It's not a great deal for me but I was entitled to nowt anyway but for the long servers it's quite substantial .
Also got a stay of execution and they don't want anybody leaving the business until april , we can leave after our 30 days consultation if we want but we are guaranteed another 5 weeks after that , every little helps .
Got to stay on anyway as they are putting on a freemans at a pub in barnsley , free bar all night for everyone .
Kin ain't missing that chaps .
So there will be a few days when you don’t post.......
While ya sobering up!
Crafty b¥ggers will probably make it the night before the 1230 kick off! Just to save a few bob.
Seriously though. The 75% extra will be worth some coin to some, seems generous, and that’s not the norm, and should be applauded...... and you also for acknowledging it. Becoming bitter is really easy, and hopefully, you will find something soon.
Some who have put some good years in will be able to access their pension and go for a little part time job and it’ll probably be the best thing to happen to them, the extra 75% will be the difference for them ....... you know what I mean here.