GW's??

[Dabz]

one day we'll open the Wiltshire Bikers Cafe...

[wasted_ace]

Bloody shame..they had some great bargains on their sale days but the Swindon branch was a pig of a place to get to at the best of times
Lets hope that somebody buys up the business and saves those jobs..every time a bike dealer/accessory place closes down it just gives the large outfits the monopoly and they shove up the prices accordingly >

[wasted_ace]

Fowlers Of Bristol..my opinion after a lot of dealings with them..superb choice of bikes and good deals to be had if you haggle with the few decent saleguys and not the pearly toothed ones with bad haircuts and putrid breath..very pukingly nice to you when buying brand new...mmmmmmm...thats about it..
Hideously expensive..servicing is f**king dire and nearly cost me my life in 2010..bike gear so pricey you would need to flog a kidney to buy any of it and i wouldnt touch one of their used bikes as they are ****e and will no doubt break down a few days after the 1 month warranty expires

[Mikkie1986]

GW is going to hit Swindon fairly hard on the biker front. ( They had over 4000 visitors per month)
It was a big attraction and every local business did well from it. passing trade and all that..

I have my new shop being built currently and it will hold 3 times the stock so hopefully it wont hit us to hard! :-/ We should be ok, we generally have staff that say hello and would you like a cuppa...

Fowlers - You will always get mixed reviews....As im sure everyone is aware.

( i dont personally like them). But whatever trade you are in, you cant please everyone...
Who hasnt ever moaned or been a pain in someones ass?!?!?

Silence............ as i suspected... ;D

[Nooj]

Bollocks, I was halfway through buying some stuff when their site went down due to 'maintenance' >

[Mikkie1986]

I would say dont buy anything... You may not receive it....

[Ducatista]

I was halfway through buying some stuff when their site went down due to 'maintenance'

If it went down before you completed then that's a good thing.

[Gerry]

one day we'll open the Wiltshire Bikers Cafe...

Not if I beat you first :-)

I know of a nice tidy building in Swindon going cheap, built in cafe upstairs etc.
All we would need is Beamer running it and it would make a fortune :-)

On a serious note: if you look at the H Cafe, Loomies or even the Ace Cafe (which is in a really crap place) all you need is an old cafe with good parking and a big Biker friendly notice and it would stand a good chance of doing well.
We (bikers) are always looking for a place to ride to.
If WB ever invested it would be really well supported.

I'm off to look for a suitable place on Google :-)

G

[Ade]

.. over-trading ... classic way to insolvency.. (worked in Insolvency for couple of years when in practice ) .. not nice having to tell staff, none of who's fault it is, that they are being made redundant .. even worse for them when Administrators called in at last moment and staff have no inkling.

Lots of businesses aren't saveable by an Administrator (called in by Directors) or even a Receiver (appointed by a creditor - usually a bank) because that action wasn't taken soon enough ... absolutely not saying that that is the case for GW's as don't know the detail.
But sometimes if an Insolvency Practitioner gets called in earlier then there is more of the business to save .. or it's a more attractive proposition to sell on some or all of the business as a going concern if that option is open to the IP.

Very sad though for the very many members of staff that have lost their jobs today.

Wonder if that exec car business in the service workshop car park is also linked to GW ? .. normally if the parent company fails it can have a snowball effect with subsidiary businesses previously reliant on parent company support in terms of bank cross-guarantees etc.

[Mikkie1986]

Tut Tut.. I think they were recently purchased by a certain business mans mate.... Just like Budget Bikes were in December....