BBC1 (Quest) - Scrappers

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Discussion

Laurel Green

30,780 posts

232 months

Tuesday 1st March 2016
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Back on BBC 2 this evening at 10 o'clock.

Shaw Tarse

31,543 posts

203 months

Tuesday 1st March 2016
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coffee

Laurel Green

30,780 posts

232 months

Tuesday 1st March 2016
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Terry is not a happy chappy.

nicanary

9,795 posts

146 months

Tuesday 1st March 2016
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First time I've watched this. Did his wife fall into the Dulux mixing machine at B & Q ?

joema

2,649 posts

179 months

Tuesday 1st March 2016
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Poor guy.

sooty61

688 posts

171 months

Tuesday 1st March 2016
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I think I saw her in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" as one of the factory workers

zeb

3,202 posts

218 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2016
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moral/morale

sweet mary jeysus they walk amoungst us.......heheeek

Laurel Green

30,780 posts

232 months

Tuesday 8th March 2016
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Heads up.

The Don of Croy

6,000 posts

159 months

Wednesday 9th March 2016
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If I get this right - they've crashed and phoenixed the yard, possibly leaving many creditors high 'n dry, but now they're tooling about in bigger, newer motors and anxious to get more cash rolling in...

Fair play if they've followed all the rules (no doubt advised by some well-practised accountants) but it's all a bit nefarious sounding.

As for elf 'n safety - just watch the lads in the yard wandering near the grabber without any headgear.

However, there's so much opportunity in a trade like that...

Jonesy23

4,650 posts

136 months

Wednesday 9th March 2016
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Even the son has a shiny Merc. Lots of cash seems to have managed to be made from a business that crashed, burned then rose again with all the same staff equipment and stock.

The guy must have been a bit of a muppet though if he was letting stuff go out as mixed scrap rather than pulling components first. Also they still arent doing a lot of sorting so just pushing out bottom end contaminated scrap and piles of hacked about engines.

Big delta in the cost of bits vs. Parts, selling a bare untested engine for a multiple of the retail of a whole car.

over_the_hill

3,188 posts

246 months

Wednesday 9th March 2016
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Jonesy23 said:
Even the son has a shiny Merc. Lots of cash seems to have managed to be made from a business that crashed, burned then rose again with all the same staff equipment and stock.

The guy must have been a bit of a muppet though if he was letting stuff go out as mixed scrap rather than pulling components first. Also they still arent doing a lot of sorting so just pushing out bottom end contaminated scrap and piles of hacked about engines.

Big delta in the cost of bits vs. Parts, selling a bare untested engine for a multiple of the retail of a whole car.
Not so long ago it was probably more cost effective to just sell as mixed scrap because scrap values were high and it was more trouble and cost than it was worth to strip down, test, store and possibly sell the bits.
Scrap values are well down now on a few years ago so the playing field has changed.



Jonesy23

4,650 posts

136 months

Tuesday 15th March 2016
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Yet again I bow down to Terry's financial wizardry.

Anyone who can generate the lifestyle he does off the back of a loss-making business with such big overheads and such little apparent turnover must be a genius.

He must be pretty sharp at marketing too to keep attracting customers of any sort given the utterly dire reputation the businesses appear to have both as buyers and sellers. And that was before the liquidation.

And keeping the health and safety guys away takes some effort too given he offers such easy wins to them...


Still a bit tame compared to some other players in the scrap and salvage game though.

vanordinaire

3,701 posts

162 months

Tuesday 15th March 2016
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over_the_hill said:
Jonesy23 said:
Even the son has a shiny Merc. Lots of cash seems to have managed to be made from a business that crashed, burned then rose again with all the same staff equipment and stock.

The guy must have been a bit of a muppet though if he was letting stuff go out as mixed scrap rather than pulling components first. Also they still arent doing a lot of sorting so just pushing out bottom end contaminated scrap and piles of hacked about engines.

Big delta in the cost of bits vs. Parts, selling a bare untested engine for a multiple of the retail of a whole car.
Not so long ago it was probably more cost effective to just sell as mixed scrap because scrap values were high and it was more trouble and cost than it was worth to strip down, test, store and possibly sell the bits.
Scrap values are well down now on a few years ago so the playing field has changed.
They said tonight that the daily turnover target was £3500. That makes a turnover of around £1,000,000 per annum. They then said they sell about £100,000 in parts per year so they are buying in whole cars and selling on 90% as scrap. I'd expect to get at very least 100% of the purchase price back in parts not 10%.
I counted around 15 employees, it'd be hard to get their kind of lifestyle out of a 15 employee, £1 million turnover business.
Something doesn't quite add up

berlintaxi

8,535 posts

173 months

Wednesday 16th March 2016
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Jonesy23 said:
Even the son has a shiny Merc. Lots of cash seems to have managed to be made from a business that crashed, burned then rose again with all the same staff equipment and stock.
Pre-pack admin, order loads of new gear rip the serial number off anything of value, buy it back from the administrator for peanuts, tell the tax man to take a hike and treat everyone to a new car with the money you ripped off from suppliers and the government, scumbags of the highest order.

Silent1

19,761 posts

235 months

Wednesday 16th March 2016
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berlintaxi said:
Jonesy23 said:
Even the son has a shiny Merc. Lots of cash seems to have managed to be made from a business that crashed, burned then rose again with all the same staff equipment and stock.
Pre-pack admin, order loads of new gear rip the serial number off anything of value, buy it back from the administrator for peanuts, tell the tax man to take a hike and treat everyone to a new car with the money you ripped off from suppliers and the government, scumbags of the highest order.
I'm intrigued, can you explain how this works and the relevance of the serial numbers?
Genuinely interested.

berlintaxi

8,535 posts

173 months

Wednesday 16th March 2016
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Silent1 said:
berlintaxi said:
Jonesy23 said:
Even the son has a shiny Merc. Lots of cash seems to have managed to be made from a business that crashed, burned then rose again with all the same staff equipment and stock.
Pre-pack admin, order loads of new gear rip the serial number off anything of value, buy it back from the administrator for peanuts, tell the tax man to take a hike and treat everyone to a new car with the money you ripped off from suppliers and the government, scumbags of the highest order.
I'm intrigued, can you explain how this works and the relevance of the serial numbers?
Genuinely interested.
Say you buy a new CNC machine from a supplier but leave the invoice unpaid, the company then goes into administration on an agreed date, the supplier tries to claim retention of title on the machine, however you have removed any identifying marks such as the serial number so he can't definitively prove that is the machine he supplied, meanwhile you have already done a deal with the administrator through your new company to buy everything for a fraction of its worth and hey ho you have a factory full of new equipment and no debts.

RicksAlfas

13,403 posts

244 months

Wednesday 16th March 2016
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Pre-pack administration.

Buy loads of stuff. Go bust before the invoices are due to be paid. (Usually on a Friday, or around a bank holiday). The administrators declare on Monday that there were no other interested parties, so the best thing to do is to "sell" the business back to the original owners at a knock down price so they can carry on being terrible at what they were doing.

Winners - owners, administrators, possibly employees
Losers - everyone else, especially suppliers.

Occasionally there is a legitimate business reason this has happened - flood/fire/massive bad debt. But more often than not it is simply unscrupulous owners milking a legal, but very unethical process.

Silent1

19,761 posts

235 months

Wednesday 16th March 2016
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berlintaxi said:
Silent1 said:
berlintaxi said:
Jonesy23 said:
Even the son has a shiny Merc. Lots of cash seems to have managed to be made from a business that crashed, burned then rose again with all the same staff equipment and stock.
Pre-pack admin, order loads of new gear rip the serial number off anything of value, buy it back from the administrator for peanuts, tell the tax man to take a hike and treat everyone to a new car with the money you ripped off from suppliers and the government, scumbags of the highest order.
I'm intrigued, can you explain how this works and the relevance of the serial numbers?
Genuinely interested.
Say you buy a new CNC machine from a supplier but leave the invoice unpaid, the company then goes into administration on an agreed date, the supplier tries to claim retention of title on the machine, however you have removed any identifying marks such as the serial number so he can't definitively prove that is the machine he supplied, meanwhile you have already done a deal with the administrator through your new company to buy everything for a fraction of its worth and hey ho you have a factory full of new equipment and no debts.
Ah ok, thanks for the answer. It's amazing how that isn't seen as criminal, I'm sure whoever does it makes sure they plan it to look coincidental but even so you would think it would be possible to get the police involved.
I guess a lot of companies try and guard against this by putting hidden markings/serials on machinery they sell?

Jonesy23

4,650 posts

136 months

Wednesday 16th March 2016
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Though doing a phoenix / prepack is often only a great idea if your creditors are the sort of people who rely on the legal process and accept being screwed for their money. Which isn't the most common thing in the salvage industry.

HMRC are probably the biggest losers and other trade debtors most likely got their cash one way or another.


berlintaxi

8,535 posts

173 months

Wednesday 16th March 2016
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As Rick said, immoral sure, but not illegal.