Savastore owner Watford Electronics hits the financial skids?

[Bob Crabtree]

Folks,

Peter Hills has been good enough to post and I'd personally appreciate it if the responses to his doing so consisted of something more than cheap pot shots.

[MarkFuller]

I too work for Watford Electronics Ltd (Redten Internet). I'm based in Birmingham and had a progress meeting booked for today at Head Office. Having read these postings last night, I was fully expecting it to turn into a farewell meeting. However... I arrived at 11, was greeted by all the usual faces, we had our progress meeting as planned and I went back to my office as expected.
I strongly beleive that if you want to be regarded by your readers as a respected source of IT information, you should be making sure that any details you publish in future are verified and are not just hear say - It certainly would have saved me from a sleepless night in this instance!

[Dorza]

Originally Posted by MarkFuller

I strongly beleive that if you want to be regarded by your readers as a respected source of IT information, you should be making sure that any details you publish in future are verified and are not just hear say - It certainly would have saved me from a sleepless night in this instance!

Had you heard of and read Hexus.net before word of this got round to you? This would probably not have been posted had it not come from a reliable source. As Bob has stated

"We've been unable to get Watford to confirm or deny these rumours - but have been told that the Financial Director Ricki Raqeeb will call us back."

Which to me would suggest that hexus has done their bit to verify this. Its been a day since this was posted and the longer it goes on without Watford E saying anything the worse it looks. I'm sorry but thats just a fact. If nothings wrong why hasn't anything been said? I for one would want to quell rumors like this straight away if I was running a company and nothing was wrong.

Maybe this rumor is true, maybe it isn't but if theres a chance that savastore goes under soon, us readers who spend the money should be informed; and thats all hexus has done. They've informed us, you can't knock them for that.

[Andrzej]

Originally Posted by MarkFuller

...Redten...

I am sure that Microsoft would not have offered you guys their full backing without being 100% certain that you would be around for the 3 year duration of your customer's contracts

Originally Posted by PeterHills

...I work for Watford Electronics...

Whatever happened to Luke ?

[nightmare99]

It is a fact that watford have had some (or all?) of thier credit pulled by insurers.

This does not mean the end though and it is possible that watford are doing some restructuring and maybe dropping the less profitable parts of the business and focusing on others?

I remember not so long ago something similar (credit insurance pulled/reduced by Euler) happened to ebuyer and they are still around.

I do think that maybe Mr Jessa should respond directly to this information as it can only serve to loose the company business, its normally the rumours that snowball and force a company into financial trouble.

[cooljhill]

I work at another computer shop and we have the same suppliers as watford electronics we where told yesturday by two of our suppliers that the administrators had gone in and they where in 11 million of debt. and some of our supliers had pulled there credit and stopped shipping as they had no money to pay with. however i dont work at watford electronics so i dont no. im just telling you what i was told by watford electronics suppliers

[cooljhill]

and the only reason ebuyer are still around is because the owner is a multi millionere and he keeps putting more money into the bussiness because it has high market share they are lossing on average 7 - 8 million a year due to trading under 10%

[therover]

If you visit the Watford Electronics/Savastore website it looks a though things are running as normal. All of these rumours do nothing but damage a companys reputation. I think you guys should hold back on making damaging comments about Watford Electronics until the true facts have been confirmed. If you check the forums there are lots of damaging things that have been said about them over the years. I think what you need to remember is that people are much faster to slag off a company for bad service than they are to compliment them for good service. I am sure that for every order they have screwed up there are another thousand orders that have been perfect. It may be true that there credit rating has been effected, as has the credit rating of many IT resellers with prices and margins dropping. Watford have also gone on a bit of a spending spree recently with the aquisition of Carrera, Redten and others...And no, I do not work for Watford Electronics, but for one of their competitors! They have been around for a long time and despite what a minority of people may think their loss would be a great loss to the IT Marketplace. It is people like Watford Electronics who have driven the price of technology down over the years and made it as affordable as it is today (who remember 128Mb of ram costing about £300?)!

[DR]

How do you expect everything to be paid for?

We do not pay enough for our technology we are spoilt.

The industry, the r&d, the support, the advertising, and the buisnesses would be better without entering in to aggressive price wars.

As you say - Watford have driven prices down - however, this has caused them long term pain - you need prices to be stable to make margins to re-invest and to pay suppliers.

If someone is making 10 quid on selling a 100 quid product - with say free shipping how do you expect to get superior support, margins simply can't support it.

[therover]

It is viable to sell a £100 product and make £10 even with free shipping as long as you are selling enough of them.

You also need to be in control of your business overheads and take into account the actual cost of selling a product (as you said staff, advertising, marketing etc.)

The problem has been that the likes of ebuyer, watford etc. have all been trying to be the cheapest for many years and have been trying to undercut each other and gain market share, with no thought of the consequences of not actually covering the cost of running their businesses and making a profit.

If you look at eBuyer there prices are nowhere near as competetive as they used to be. Without a doubt they have realised that selling so cheap that they cannot make a profit is a pointless exercise.

[JPreston]

There are many successful retailers in sectors with low margins, it has nothing to do with 'the race to the bottom'. However there aren't any successful retailers who can survive long with such appalling customer service, however established they are.

Watford have similar prices to Scan but one is universally loved and the other universally slated. For me, the cumulative experience of shopping at Watford grew just too painful even though I could easily walk to the showroom, and the alternative of buying elsewhere meant paying for delivery and taking (unpaid) time off work to wait for deliveries or to drive to depots. It's a shame because Watford must have been doing something right to have lasted 20+ years before so badly losing their way, but that's business for you.

Condolences of course to the hard-working and competent individuals among their staff; there is enough unemployment in the immediate area already

[Andrzej]

Originally Posted by therover

...Watford... ...people are much faster to slag off a company for bad service than they are to compliment them...

You are focused in the wrong area entirely

From what I have read, all that is needed is for Ricki Raqeeb to call Bob Crabtree (as Watford apparently said he would when the story first arrived @ HEXUS.hq)

One call/email from Ricki to say...

"Categorically, there are no major issues here and all of the rumours are false. Watford has traded successfully for more than 20 years and I give you my personal assurance that there is no reason why that should not continue"

...and the whole story would disappear


When a query like this is raised about a company - it is like wondering if the milk in a fridge is fresh

The way to deal with it is 'fast, effective and with authority'

i.e. milk out - open - sniff - replace

No harm done and everyone knows the milk is good to drink

The worst way to deal with it is for the milk to come out of the fridge - for someone at Watford to promise that Ricki will test it immediately and come back to you - then leave it out in the kitchen for 3 days

It is the 'leaving it open and out of the fridge' that causes the stink


<analogy-meister downs his tools>

[therover]

Just wondering but are you a milkman by any chance!!

[Andrzej]

Originally Posted by therover

...are you a milkman by any chance...

That is a question best answered by satisfied wives

[manwithnoname]

Originally Posted by cooljhill

I work at another computer shop and we have the same suppliers as watford electronics we where told yesturday by two of our suppliers that the administrators had gone in and they where in 11 million of debt. and some of our supliers had pulled there credit and stopped shipping as they had no money to pay with. however i dont work at watford electronics so i dont no. im just telling you what i was told by watford electronics suppliers

Bit off Topic but...
Having been forced (under protest) to show my understanding of the data protection act, the company I work for did a few random tests to check the beans were not been spilt, I raise an eyebrow with that post. Not sure the suppliers should be discussing Watford Electronics with your company. NDA issues for starters and possibly a bit commercially naive as you could conclude you are dealing with suppliers with a surplus of stock that information could put you at an advantage.

Originally Posted by cooljhill

and the only reason ebuyer are still around is because the owner is a multi millionere and he keeps putting more money into the bussiness because it has high market share they are lossing on average 7 - 8 million a year due to trading under 10%

Are their accounts published? I don't know whether your statement is true but assuming they are working to a business plan it is not usual for a business to trade at a loss for a period of time. Only panic if the losses continue after the planned period of time

[EasterEEL]

Gosh I hope they can recover. I actually purchased from their counter in Luton on Fri 1st Feb and the regular faces were all there.

I don't understand the mentality of some of the posts here.

Sure if you have had a bad rap with them you are going to be reluctant to use them again. But to say its is good news is crazy talk. It's not good news for the employees and not good news for the consumers, as Savastor help drive prices down.

For the record I have found them ok to deal with over the years, not the best but certainly not the worst, (I reserve that for a company based in Stoke-on-Trent).

I know that Hexus are offering advice to help us, but I bet this bit of news is Watford Electronics worst nightmare if they are in trouble.

EasterEEL