BHS to be liquidated - 11,000 jobs lost

V F · 2 Jun 2016 at 18:09

Iron-man said:
real shame for all these people who are now going to be out of work through no fault of there own. best of luck to them

Yet the Government will still be taking credit how great the low unemployment is.

drunkenmaster · 2 Jun 2016 at 18:33

scorza said:
Well maybe the guy who owned it for 15 years should have put it on the right track. Crazy talk I know. If the reports are correct, then BHS has a pension deficit of £571m. Sir Phillip and his family took out £586m of BHS during his time as owner.

Yup, he pretty much didn't pay the money into the pension scheme he should have and instead of the people working towards their retirement having that money in their pension scheme, money they earned, he cheated them out of it and now the government will pay their pensions meaning he cheated everyone out of that money.

It should be a crime to not make pension payments you were contracted to and instead take the money for yourself, in fact I can't believe that isn't a crime and he isn't in jail. He's going to cost the government likely billions including all the interest that pension fund should have been and should still be accruing. He is the epitome of a rich **** screwing over the rest of us and getting away with it(seemingly).

Housey · 2 Jun 2016 at 18:35

The British High Street is a dead zone, it is going to need to become something else really as shops are not what it's about outside of major cities.

Uther · 2 Jun 2016 at 18:36

Real shame for the workforce

Akagi · 2 Jun 2016 at 18:52

Surely a lot of the shops will be individually taken over or bought out for use by other companies, so quite a lot of people might keep their jobs, just under a different employer?

It happened in Worthing when BHS closed one store and Beales took it over. Most of the staff were the same.

Same when BHS took over Alders.

Uther · 2 Jun 2016 at 18:54

Acme said:
Surely a lot of the shops will be individually taken over or bought out for use by other companies, so quite a lot of people might keep their jobs, just under a different employer?

It happened in Worthing when BHS closed one store and Beales took it over. Most of the staff were the same.

Same when BHS took over Alders.

I'm not so sure, the one in Stratford Upon Avon is huge, over two floors, and in a prime location. The rent would be huge.

mattyfez · 2 Jun 2016 at 19:12

Yeh I think it's clear the owner saw it as nothing but a retirement fund, or he would have been innovating and shaping the business, for tge obvious issues the high street is facing. no evidence of that.

Whats he's done is bled it dry so he can retire in luxury. I don't know how people like that sleep at night.

Sorry for the staff, I like BHS for cheap well wearing office clothes.

muon · 2 Jun 2016 at 19:21

BHS was always unprofitable.

BHS continued to run while the pension fund was indirectly raided. Money which should have gone to sure up the pension fund was taken as dividends.

Now everyone else will have to bail it out.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/25/bhs-pension-regulator-sir-philip-green-analysis

Roar87 · 2 Jun 2016 at 19:52

MichaelAwkward said:
Yay capitalism!

Probably better BHS failing than the entire USSR though

V F · 2 Jun 2016 at 19:52

mattyfez said:
Yeh I think it's clear the owner saw it as nothing but a retirement fund, or he would have been innovating and shaping the business, for tge obvious issues the high street is facing. no evidence of that.

Whats he's done is bled it dry so he can retire in luxury. I don't know how people like that sleep at night.

Sorry for the staff, I like BHS for cheap well wearing office clothes.

The same way the politicians can do it. No scruples.

antijoke · 2 Jun 2016 at 19:54

Uther said:
I'm not so sure, the one in Stratford Upon Avon is huge, over two floors, and in a prime location. The rent would be huge.

Yep that's going to be interesting to see what (if anything) goes there.

Nevakonaza · 2 Jun 2016 at 19:57

Acme said:
Surely a lot of the shops will be individually taken over or bought out for use by other companies, so quite a lot of people might keep their jobs, just under a different employer?

Doubt it,If anything even if they do get to keep their jobs under a different employer you can almost bet it will be a different contract with lower hours,The amount of shops now that are only part time jobs,They would rather take on 2 people that have 15 hour contracts than one person with a 30 hour contract. :mad:

Either way,11K out of a job..wow.

dowie · 2 Jun 2016 at 20:01

mattyfez said:
Yeh I think it's clear the owner saw it as nothing but a retirement fund, or he would have been innovating and shaping the business, for tge obvious issues the high street is facing. no evidence of that.

Whats he's done is bled it dry so he can retire in luxury. I don't know how people like that sleep at night.

Sorry for the staff, I like BHS for cheap well wearing office clothes.

they just view it/the world differently... people like him shouldn't be in business, unfortunately it is an inefficient market and some VC/PE types can be complete chancers, some very unethical asset strippers and some actually very decent businessmen capable of turning around struggling companies and making a profit. In the long run the guys who turn around companies ought to come out on top however these guys invest in businesses for several years at a time that sort of time horizon means you've got a small sample set and people who've 'made it' mostly as a function of luck - which of course lets the unethical ***** be seen as 'successful' and able to pull off deals that mess with people's jobs, lives etc...

mattyfez · 2 Jun 2016 at 20:14

It's utterly disgusting, he's severely disrupted the lives of 11000 low to middle wage earners, and made himself very very rich in the process.

He shoulebe stripped of his knighthood, have his assets stripped and thrown in jail.

dowie · 2 Jun 2016 at 20:27

I thought you meant the guy who bought it? My post was in reference to people like him.

Though yeah Green doesn't come out of the whole thing looking too great either.

iMacMart · 2 Jun 2016 at 20:54

I interviewed and offer a place to a guy thats worked at BHS for many years, he's happy to move on but still has loyalty to his old business as its given him many years of employment ...

Shame though, been about for years.....

Deleted member 77746 · 2 Jun 2016 at 21:44

I feel sorry for the staff

this might put pressure on the job centres.

Stretch · 2 Jun 2016 at 21:51

It was an awful store. It's felt old an tired for a decade. I can't think of a single purchase item which would make me want to enter BHS. Supermarkets and online have squeezed them into irrelevance.

M&S (non food), and Debenhams will be next.

Marky · 2 Jun 2016 at 21:55

This is from Philip Greens wiki page:

Wikipedia.org said:
Green bought BHS for £200m in 2000, but the firm performed poorly so he sold it for just £1 in 2015. On sale BHS had debts of £1.3bn, including a pensions deficit of £571m. Despite the deficit of £571m, Green and his family collected £586m in dividends, rental payments and interest on loans during their 15-year ownership of the retailer. Referring to the conduct of Green, Angela Eagle, the shadow business secretary, said: "In this situation it appears this owner extracted hundreds of millions of pounds from the business and walked away to his favourite tax haven, leaving the Pension Protection Scheme to pick up the bill."

Damn... that's pretty scummy.

BHS has, in my eyes, been very old fashioned for years and never really made any attempt to modernise - I'm not really that surprised with it being liquidated - If I'm totally honest, I didn't even realise it was still around :confused:

Kosmiche · 2 Jun 2016 at 22:00

I remember BHS being like a wonderland at xmas when I was a kid.