Companies in Administration/Bankruptcy Thread

[jockosjungle]

Cineworld threatening to close its doors for ever, not sure if its a ploy for a government bailout.

I guess they're doing really badly, can see no real end in sight until at least April before a decent movie might come out (see Bond thread).

I can only speak for Warrington, but they've basically rebuilt the town centre around cineworld. It'll be devestating unless another one picks it up

[mjb1975]

I assume it's got to be the same with Vue and Odeon, surely? Same situation; maybe they're run better or have more reserves or something.

[douglasb]

If I read it right, CW are hoping to open again when the market allows. Essentially mothballing the business. I'm not 100% that you can just re-hire staff after making them redundant though?

[jockosjungle]

I suppose it depends on the business model. At the end of the day you either own the cinemas outright or you rent them. I have no idea about the others, but cineworld seems to be moving into town centre locations and rent the places (or they do in Warrington).

You've got your fixed costs, the rent mostly. I don't imagine there are many long term employees (in Warrington they'll have worked there six months) so redundancy costs will be minimal.

They're probably losing money every time they open the cinema, from a cost perspective its probably cheaper than keeping the place open.

I'm guessing zero hour contracts, the one in St Helens always seemed to be run on a skeleton staff anyway, they always seemed to have the policy of "no matter how quiet it is, you've got to queue" usually it was only one person on the popcorn counter.

I'm guessing the future (which in all honesty is now) will be online tickets, ticket machines, possibly some sort of ticket barrier.

Not been in the new Warrington one, I strongly doubt it even had a ticket booth.

[cliff homewood]

Originally Posted by mjb1975

I assume it's got to be the same with Vue and Odeon, surely? Same situation; maybe they're run better or have more reserves or something.

Cineworld has been stated as been 8 billion in debt I believe, don't know how the other cinemas compare

[malcy]

Originally Posted by douglasb

If I read it right, CW are hoping to open again when the market allows. Essentially mothballing the business. I'm not 100% that you can just re-hire staff after making them redundant though?

Only one or two managers per cinema are on regular contracts so would need to be made redundant.

Everyone else on zero hours so they just won’t get any work hours from Thursday. They can obviously take other work in the meantime and always say no when they reopen, but all that happens is they get offered hours once back up and running.

The main reason they are doing this is so they can refuse to pay any rent to the landlords as the cinemas are closed.

Odeon will remain open, but most sites only Friday to Sunday. This means the workers get the new furlough benefits from the Government which require the employer to still be paying staff part time.

[jockosjungle]

This seems to be how it works nowadays. They'll have something in their contract about if its closed or something, or simply push hard on the rent. At the end of the day what is a landlord gonna do, who else is he gonna rent a cinema to?

Sadly it's normally a council who picks up the bill as they're the ultimate landlord.

When these big businesses close down, clearly someone is getting poorer but it never seems to be the people who own them (who probably paid a quid for it anyway).

The Warrington contract (from what was released) seemed to be massively in the favour of cineworlds, things like who the restaurants near the cinema could be rented to (had to be national chains) and that they didn't have to pay rent if they weren't.

But Warrington rebuilt the whole town centre round a big cinema, so who has who over a barrel?

There is literally nothing else you can do with the space.

[MaxNutter]

Originally Posted by jockosjungle

But Warrington rebuilt the whole town centre round a big cinema, so who has who over a barrel?

There is literally nothing else you can do with the space.

They could burn it down, bulldoze the site and build a Yate's

[shteve]

Arcadia group wobbling now.

[malcy]

Originally Posted by shteve

Arcadia group wobbling now.

Finally it’s in administration.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55139369

Almost certainly it’s days on high street are over. Someone will want Top Shop as an online brand, but rest of it is worthless.

[GregB]

Originally Posted by malcy

Finally it’s in administration.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55139369



Almost certainly it’s days on high street are over. Someone will want Top Shop as an online brand, but rest of it is worthless.

Terrible for the staff but I'm sure the lovely Philip Green will fill the pension hole from the the money he's taken from the company over the years

[nutter45]

Originally Posted by GregB

Terrible for the staff but I'm sure the lovely Philip Green will fill the pension hole from the the money he's taken from the company over the years

Tina you mean?

[Kryten]

Yeah, they are liquidating rather than trying to do any restructuring it seems. End of the era for Debenhams. I wonder if someone will buy the brand rather than the stores?

[GregB]

The arcadia collapse has killed off the Debenhams rescue bid. The high street is going to be unrecognisable.

[shteve]

And before someone tries to blame the Government and Covid, a reminder that this thread was started 12 years ago.

[GregB]

Originally Posted by shteve

And before someone tries to blame the Government and Covid, a reminder that this thread was started 12 years ago.

It was only a matter of time but Covid is a factor in the speed in which it happened.

[scoobyood]

[jockosjungle]

Yep, they paid themselves a billion pound dividend one year, not a penny of tax on it. The British taxpayer will be footing the bill, not to mention all the landlords and so forth.

This is the problem, his business goes tits up, but he seems to get no poorer??

To be fair Debenhams was always one bad Christmas away from closing for ever, it was fairly inevitable this would kill it off.