Woolworths & MFI go into Administration today

[Wez]

Some say we are not even in the thick of the recession yet

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7751064.stm

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7750250.stm

[dr_blackman]

mfi where always going down the pan.... woolworths where hoping for a big buy out which offically never happened I guess this is the start of the big companys going down....

[JamieP]

I wonder how/if this will effect Howdens.

[AndrewOW]

I'm personally amazed how long MFI have been able to keep going. They always seemed desperate for some reason.

[The Raven]

Im going to MFI tomorrow see if i can get a cheap 3 suite.

[bolarbag]

I'm personally amazed how long MFI have been able to keep going. They always seemed desperate for some reason.

Agreed

 

Was suprised at the quality of a recent MFI kitchen though - they have improved!

 

Whats happening with HBOS are they being left to rot now that L.TSB have pulled out of the merger?

 

Im going to MFI tomorrow see if i can get a cheap 3 suite.

 

Thats not a bad idea:P

[gordy07]

I think there will be more to follow too:(

[RedM]

Apparently Woolworth is for sale for just £1.

 

Talk about taking the p**s. Last week I paid nearly a fiver just for a bag of pick n' mix!

[TTRickeh]

Agreed

 

Was suprised at the quality of a recent MFI kitchen though - they have improved!

 

Whats happening with HBOS are they being left to rot now that L.TSB have pulled out of the merger?

 

30,000 jobs in Woolies alone, that's a lot of people.

 

Not sure about HBOS, I doubt they'll 'rot' as the gov still said they're getting bailed out to the tune of however many billion.

[bolarbag]

Apparently Woolworth is for sale for just £1.

 

Talk about taking the p**s. Last week I paid nearly a fiver just for a bag of pick n' mix!

 

[mr lover]

Apparently Woolworth is for sale for just £1.

 

Talk about taking the p**s. Last week I paid nearly a fiver just for a bag of pick n' mix!

 

[Branners]

Its a shame that such well known companies such as Woolies and MFI can go under. Both have a huge history in the UK and are such well known names.

 

I do have a feeling more will go to the wall though. The furniture stores for instance, how can they give 4 years interest free credit with 1 year payment free on a £600 sofa?

 

Nothing the government has done will help any of this. Reducing VAT was probably enough to drive those two under. The work involved in reworking every single IT system and till to deal with the new VAT figure in the space of a week must be horrendous.

[Havard]

Apparently Woolworth is for sale for just £1.

 

Talk about taking the p**s. Last week I paid nearly a fiver just for a bag of pick n' mix!

 

You never disappoint me Martin......

[mawby]

Indeed, where I work we have had to send out some emergency patches to software where a VAT change was going to uncover a few 'undocumented features'. Changing to 15% wasn't the problem in itself, but tracking historic VAT rates against future returns was something that didn't quite work right. Thankfully not my code.

[merckx]

I'm not surprised that are MFI in trouble as the few times I've been in the store in recent years there's barely been anyone in the place.

 

A shame about Woolworths, it was a very popular shop when I was young.

[marbleapple]

 

I do have a feeling more will go to the wall though. The furniture stores for instance, how can they give 4 years interest free credit with 1 year payment free on a £600 sofa?

 

 

I believe that is an agreement with a loan company and the store. I.e. the store gets the money immediatly but the loan company gets a a cut.

 

Its a shame that such well known companies such as Woolies and MFI can go under. Both have a huge history in the UK and are such well known names.

 

I should think that they will be sold off. If they didn't think they were worth saving then they would be put into liquidation rather than administration. Admins are designed for the company to be sold on as a going concern.

 

Apparently Woolworth is for sale for just £1.

 

Talk about taking the p**s. Last week I paid nearly a fiver just for a bag of pick n' mix!

 

 

Thats the up front cost.... the running costs might cost more than a pack of pick and mix....I should think it would cost you a a few ££ when you take TUPE for 30,000 staff into account and have to pay into the pension pots.

[RedM]

In all seriousness can you think of anything that you can get in Woolies that you can't get elsewhere and cheaper or with more choice?

[RiceRocket]

They're good for chart dvds currently, usually beaten by the supermarkets for the big releases though (eg Indy 4, Mamma Mia)

[SteveR]

In all seriousness can you think of anything that you can get in Woolies that you can't get elsewhere and cheaper or with more choice?

 

You will like the title of this article

[RedM]

 

You will like the title of this article

 

You're not wrong!

 

Glad it's not just me.

[SteveR]

I wonder how/if this will effect Howdens.

They split in 2006, apparently, so hopefully not much change.

 

I guess their stuff might go up in price a bit, if MFI and Howdens were effectively buying from the same source?

[Supra-Brett]

I wonder how/if this will effect Howdens.

 

Howdens is seperate now i think.

[ivan]

Indeed, where I work we have had to send out some emergency patches to software where a VAT change was going to uncover a few 'undocumented features'. Changing to 15% wasn't the problem in itself, but tracking historic VAT rates against future returns was something that didn't quite work right. Thankfully not my code.

I am SO glad I'm not still in my old job.

IIRC the whole company bespoke database had the VAT elements hard coded at 17.5%. That's thousands of lines of code to go through by the external contractor - and I bet they've plenty of other customers to look after too.

[marbleapple]

I am SO glad I'm not still in my old job.

IIRC the whole company bespoke database had the VAT elements hard coded at 17.5%. That's thousands of lines of code to go through by the external contractor - and I bet they've plenty of other customers to look after too.

 

I don't mean to sound rude or stupid but why on earth would you make a variable thing such as VAT a fixed amount when encoding? Surely someone would have thought to make it easily amendable.... i.e. all the code reverts to a field which is easily updated. (My knowledge in this area is minimal and i'm sure it is more complicated than that but I would like to know why)

[Branners]

I don't mean to sound rude or stupid but why on earth would you make a variable thing such as VAT a fixed amount when encoding? Surely someone would have thought to make it easily amendable.... i.e. all the code reverts to a field which is easily updated. (My knowledge in this area is minimal and i'm sure it is more complicated than that but I would like to know why)

 

on a fixed price bit of work which didnt specify that the VAT element had to be changeable why would you?

 

Thats the problem with lowest price tendering and a lack of overall design control.

 

You then have the issue of how you apply VAT to payment plan events. You book and pay 50% deposit for something due in January. Do you pay 17.5% on the full amount, do you pay 15% on the remaining amount or 15% on the whole lot and expect a credit note back.

 

Most ill thought through tax change I can think of. Add to that the fact that some small businesses (the ones they are supposed to be helping) currently pay a lesser fixed price on VAT which means they dont actually benefit from this.

 

And they put up duty on alcohol to cover the reduction in VAT, but the duty is based on acohol content and VAT is based on price. So Whisky increased by about 9% or something and they are having to make a special exception for it.

 

JB