George Whites - Bust
 

Have you heard about George Whites?

Bad news I think. Not least because I now have to go and visit my in-laws in Swindon without the option of disappearing to this place.

George White Motors, the UK’s leading motorcycle dealer group, has gone into administration this morning, MCN has learnt.

Rumours of the closure began circulating early this morning with suggestions that staff at its dealerships in Swindon, Plymouth and Torbay had been made redundant.

The shock news was then confirmed at around 11am to MCN by owner Steve Gannicott who said the group had ceased trading and had filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators.

George White had established itself to become the UK’s biggest motorcycle dealer with motorcycle stores in Swindon, Plymouth and Torbay selling bikes from Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki and the Piaggio group and clothing outlets in Swindon, Plymouth, Bolton, Donington and Slough

MCN will be bringing more on this story as soon as we have it. The full story will be in next week’s Motorcycle News, out Wednesday January 25.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Blimey... sad news for all the jobs lost. They only recently opened the Donington Park factory shop.

I wonder what happened, I guess they can't compete with online retailer whilst having some many premises creating overheads.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

I find this hard to believe, the custom from Squirrell_Hunter alone should keep them ticking over

; P

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

So is this a bad time to buy a Shark helmet from them? They only have xs peahead size left so a mere £99 for the flip front I want as they are so much more comfortable when riding in Thailand.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Yes, I'm thinking along the lines of LPH...is it worthwhile popping down there to see if there's any bargins to be had?...I'm certain i could make a few crazy offers if they're desperate enough!:mrgreen:

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Oh dear this isn't good. At least I only loose out of 2 months of my 1 year bike warranty with them.

I feel for all the guys loosing their jobs, never good to hear this sort of news.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Sad state of affairs

The plymouth Herald has also go the story.
Sounds like a case of too big too quick

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Looks like the GT Motorcycles branches in St Austell, Plymouth and Torbay have also gone.
They'd not long been bought by Whites :-(

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Will there be a monster sell off like when Infinity went.....?

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Godd to see MCN is as accurate as ever... The Slough branch closed months ago!

Shame as they always had a good selection of gear at sensible prices. Having said that the "outlet" shops were massive and always had a huge level of stock. If you don't turn it over quickly enough that is a LOT of your working capital tied up. [/accounting_mode]

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Was in the Swindon one the other week looking for new winter gloves and they had a MASSIVE selection.......

Of Frank Thomas ones #-o, the search continued

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Might be a few smaller main dealers breathing sighs of relief.These huge multi outlet chains have been shoving out the locals for years,but they all seem to go under in the end.Remember Carnells/Motor Cycle City/Riossi.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Simple economics. If you discount every bike through the floor you end up having to shift massive numbers to keep trading, and the fact is not enough people are buying new bikes at the moment so they don't make any profit from the few they do sell. They engineered their own downfall really.

It may look like bad news for the bike trade, but believe me it's not really. Discounters like George Whites have been killing off smaller businesses for years with their constant undercutting of prices and they always end up going bust. Carnells, Motorcycle City and many years ago Coburn and Hughes all did the same thing.

I feel sorry for their staff who now have to find new jobs, but as for the owners and their business model... good riddance.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

You read my mind Lozzo:D

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

damn it, i was planning to go get leathers at week end from the bolton outlet aswell :/

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

You may well find that a lot of the stuff will be going cheap.
They stores should theoretically no longer be allowed to trade until the administrators have decided what they are going to do.

More often than not, they will auction off the bits and pieces.

Anybody know who has been appointed as administrator? I wouldn't be surprised if it was someone big like KPMG, PwC, Mazzars or Ernst and Young.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Delloite are administrators

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

I'm sure I put up a post saying Deloitte were administrators and that most of the gear was likely to be sold in auction or potentially through continued trade (although unlikely)

I also said, but god knows where my post went, that it may not be a profitability issue, but a cashflow at a time where people are less inclined to buy 'toys'.

found it, posted it in a different thread I'd been on...

'Seems as thought Deloitte have been appointed and just to clarify, there's nothing to say they weren't making a profit, it may have just been a cash flow issue.

Although, I do agree that in a market where you are generally selling 'toys' to people, when times get hard you will suffer harder than most.'

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

And the vultures circle!

Shame, if the biggest in the country is going bust, it's a sad state of affairs.

I'm not a fan of using these places for servicing, and I'm not prepared to start paying them for servicing. If that's what's needed to keep them afloat they need to change their business model so they don't have all their eggs in one basket.

But it is good to have somewhere that has a wide choice of gear and I would be prepared to pay an extra £20 quid for a helmet if that's what's needed to make these places profitable. We do need/want these places, so if selling bikes and gear on it's own isn't profitable, and the whole industry is on it's rssss, sorry to say it, but prices need to go up. I guess if a few big players go bust that will happen naturally as competition reduces and the trade redistributes amongst remaining dealers. Still places like this going bust may yield a few bargains, but it is never good for us in the long term.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

See above post. It probably is good news for the rest of the remaining bike trade, but it's bad news for the consumer. Just look at the number of folk on this thread who are saying 'damn, I was just about to buy X from them'

It's a similar argument to Tesco. They open a new supermarket and push out all the smaller retailers. People hate the principal of it but it doesn't stop them shopping there. The reality is they love the choice, the time saved by using a one-stop shop and the value.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

This.

People go to the outlet stores and online as much as possible for kit as it's all down to price and convenience for most - agreed with you there Ralph. Just like a car main dealer though I would never go such a place for servicing, for exactly the same reason (get it done quick, never mind the quality, they'll come back anyway to keep their warranty alive).

My local shop used to have a reasonable stock of riding kit but it gets less every time I go in there, partly due to the proximity of Whites in Slough. Although that branch closed months ago the stock levels have remained quite low though. I try to support my local shop and they appreciate my custom (most of the time) and have ordered kit in for me at good prices before now to keep me happy. But, I do like to try things on first... Lady Poppy needs new kit and we'll defo try the local shop first - I just hope they have more than a choice of one in her size.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Yep, that's my issue with most small places too. You have to spend a day driving round 4 or 5 of them before you find what you want. Easier for me to make one trip to somewhere like J&S or Hein Gerike.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

I understand alot of stock will go back to the distributors who have stock that is not paid for or on SOR.

Mind you will be interesting to see what workshop equipment comes up for sale, could do with a few bits and bobs for here.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Yup, a lot of distributors will have a retention of title clause - e.g. they own it until you pay for it.

There is also the possibility of debenture holders exercising their security which will mean they have a charge over the assets which could soak up a significant amount of the stock or even plant and machinary. Although, most will rather easy to shift items instead of risking paying storage for large items that may not sell so well.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Thing is with White's though is they often had all of the old/last year stuff Frank Thomas and others could not shift. So it may not be on SoR terms.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

should be interesting what comes out of this. I know my local dealer is hoping that sales will improve. It was no way to make money relying on the target bonus to soak up the losses, as there was no profit on the bikes themselves.

The rumour of the loses is around £36m

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

There are still a few dealers shifting units at huge discounts simply to get just the bonus as their profit - in this climate it's absolute madness.

"Pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap, go bust" seems to be the normal course of events.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

Yep

We shall see one or more going this way.

Re: George Whites - Bust
 

I bought my Sv's lower fairing panels from them on eBay for a cracking price, both panels new, unmarked, still in wrapping. Just looked at their eBay profile and they have nothing listed for sale anymore.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/g.w.bikespares.2010/m.html