Renegade Conservatory Guy

Sir,

I must write in response to the comments made by “The Glazine” dated 16th June, regarding the demise of Advantage Trade Supplies Limited”.

You reported that ‘the collapse of the company had its roots in the credit crunch’.

Sir, if the roots of Advantage’s demise were in the credit crunch it must have started far earlier that most of us can remember!

What many of us probably can remember is the demise of the similarly named Advantage Windows and Conservatories Limited, in 2008. Those of us with slightly longer memories will also remember the demise of Ian Moran’s previous incarnation; Adelphi Window Systems Limited.

You also reported that “Rehau withdrew its services – effectively removing half of the company’s business”.

I surely cannot stand alone in pointing out that these facts are very much related.

Long suffering Rehau had enjoyed the profits of earlier years when Adelphi was busy undercutting the market to establish itself as a low cost supplier. This was at a time (late 80’s to early 90’s) when there was some scope for some cutting. Despite this the company undersold itself to the extent that in 2002 it had to “restructure” (a term much abused in these situations) for the first time. It wouldn’t be the last time however as when Advantage Windows and Conservatories emerged, free of the obligations to many of Adelphi’s hard working suppliers, it continued the low cost strategy that would ultimately destroy it and its descendants.

Rehau took some pain in 2002 with the fall of Adelphi and again in 2008 as one Advantage was “restructured” into another. The advantage being only to Ian Moran however as yet again the suppliers who had serviced the company were left with debts and in many cases no prospect of making the money back.

It should be no surprise then that Rehau took a firmer line this time around. Indeed as most of the business that Advantage lost was readily taken up by other Rehau manufacturers they may perhaps now be wondering why they hadn’t taken this stance previously.

I am led to understand that Moran is now a “broken man”. Any empathy is short lived as I consider that as the demise of Advantage Trade Supplies was underway and Spectus jumped in where Rehau exited, Moran and his side kick Danny Hague were busy sending out letters to customers offering even lower prices!

Sir, the world wide recession or other macro economic condition is far from the reason for the demise of Advantage, Select or any other low-price oriented business. We can perhaps hope that as these companies fail in such conditions, they are starved of the support that they might have otherwise have engineered from suppliers.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Longbottom
Director
Sliders (UK) Limited