BBX closes its doors
Blue Band Express, known as BBX, has gone into receivership. Recent new owners, Brimfield and Mackay, had high hopes of being able to turn the firm around when they purchased it.
One of Britains oldest companies Blue Band Express went into receivership last week with the immediate loss of 450 jobs. Known as BBX between Nov 01 and April 19 2002. Blue Band Express operated a fleet of 300 vehicles from 14 locations and employed 600 people.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers said: These redundancies are regretfully a consequence of a buyer not coming forward to purchase the business as a going concern. The receivers propose to complete current contracts and close down the business in an orderly fashion.
The directors, steve Brimfield and Ian Mackay, blame the non-automated distribution systems and reliance on a labour intensive set up. The say this: “restricted the companys ability to remain competitive in a market where 24 hour delivery is essential“.
Brimfield and Mackay had purchased the company for a nominal fee from long time owner Michael Turnbull less than 6 months ago.
As part of its comprehensive 5 year business strategy BBX had won a major distribution contract with Unipart and formed a strategic alliance with next day parcels specialiest Apex. Ral Giblin, md at Apex, contacted MT last week to say that the partnership had been dissolved amicably.
