So Peters Opal has gone pop

[Sailfree]

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I do however believe that customers should be preferential creditors, coming before everyone including the administrators. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

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Nice sentiment but then no administrator would take it on as the well may be completly dry!

 

[Blackfeather]

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Work will have been commissioned by Peters, knowing there was no money to pay the suppliers. Brian Peters is unlikey to be able to be sympathetic to the people who have supported his empire all these years!

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If that is true, and they have knowingly traded while insolvent then that is a criminal act AFAIK.

 

[moondancer]

I have no background on what has gone wrong, only that it is a great shame and good luck to all employees. They are not the only business struggling, a well known diesel engine supplier and maintenance company in Essex has recently ceased trading. Talking to the MD the last 6 months saw a big downturn in their business.

If you employ a lot of people and have expensive premises then the cash burn rate will clearly be enormous. The new boat market is very sensitive to economic variations and is a leading indicator in down or upturns in the economy. If you can't cut costs as quickly as revenue drops then..... I suspect this will not be the last casualty of high interest rates, shaky looking medium term economic outlook, red deisel etc.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Speaking after the London Boat Show

"Also from Chichester, Brian Peters of Peters Opal, Europe’s largest distributor of motor and sailing yachts, announced: “We have had retail sales in excess of 70 boats, for delivery this year. "

 

[Koeketiene]

What next?

Is IPC next - Opal going belly up must make a huge difference to their advertising revenue.

 

[Badger]

Birdham Pool ?

BA Peters Plc also own Birdham Pool marina next door to Chi Marina, so I guess this could be sold off as part of the deal.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: What next?

IPC has a large stable of mags across many markets so the loss of Peters Opal won't have too much affect on the entire organisation, although it might hit the marine titles for a while. But someone will pick up the distributorships, and keep on advertising, I guess. More to the point is that bills for past advertising may not be paid (depends on Peters Opal media buying/ad agency arrangements I think).

 

[nicho]

Re: Birdham Pool ?

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BA Peters Plc also own Birdham Pool marina next door to Chi Marina, so I guess this could be sold off as part of the deal.

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It's already gone - the bank evidently insisted, and took the money, rumoured to be £8 million. I believe it was sold to British Waterways!

 

[rwoofer]

Unfortunately most dealers don't allow you to do installments with credit cards. For example on my current purchase I paid 5% deposit on CC and all other installments have had to be by cheque or bank transfer.

Slightly concerned that I'm totally exposed (nearly fully paid for the boat, but I don't get it until after SBS), but I don't see any way around it as I don't believe Escrow accounts protect you from liquidation. If everyone starts loosing confidence in dealers' financial robustness then the marine industry is really in trouble.

 

[beancounter]

Re: Speaking after the London Boat Show

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"Also from Chichester, Brian Peters of Peters Opal, Europe’s largest distributor of motor and sailing yachts, announced: “We have had retail sales in excess of 70 boats, for delivery this year. "

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I wonder what the payment arrangements to the manufacturer are for the "stock" boats they have/had? They often seemed to be offering heavily discounted "stock" boats.

Maybe overcommitting to buy up production slots in the expectation of delivery?

 

[xcw]

When I bought my boat from them a few years ago all monies went into a third party "customer account". I thought the reason for this was that if they did go pop my stage payments would be protected. Hopefully this will be the case for current customers.

As for why they went belly up, I suspect it was partly due to over expansion - they have grown at a vast rate over the past few years and really ramped up their costs.

 

[Norman_E]

You could be right. "Overtrading" is a well known phenomenon, and occurs when businesses expand fast, and current assets increase faster than they can be funded. For your sake, and those of other buyers I hope that deposit monies are properly ring-fenced, and that the "customer account" is truly held by a third party. In an overtrading situation the big temptation is always to use deposit monies to settle past accounts.

 

[Barry777]

Re: Birdham Pool ?

Birdham Pool has been for sale for some time, and present rumour is that the sale is going through.....to a company that owns an inland marina (canal boats) close to Nottingham

 

[Sans Bateau]

Up until a few years ago, until they lost it, Peters were the main UK (and European?) distributor of Fairline powerboats. Peters would have been charging a fair old commission on the sale of these boats.

That in its self would have had a major impact on the profitability of Peters. Plus rapid expansion and over commitment would have all contributed.

 

[pelicanpete]

Rather than use an escrow account when I bought my new boat several years ago from a dealer (who a year later went bust) I took the precaution of insisting the dealer set up a Bank Guarantee in my favour, at his cost, for the same amount as the deposit I had put down. This gave me peace of mind and he had use of my cash.

 

[Sans Bateau]

I have heard today, from a source that should know, boat buyers money has been lost at Peters.

This is real bad news, Maybe there is a boat buyer out there who would like to confirm it.

 

[Biro]

You are joking? He has given me and two of my mates dreadfull service over the last 5 years, and when we have asked to talk to him in person we have been asked to move our boats from the marina. I have relentlessly spoken ill will of this company and have scuppered many sales. He may be a JP but he certainly treated me and my mates with contempt. This company was supposedly run to British Standards and was let down by staff around him. All we wanted to say to Brian was, Was he aware what was going on in his name, and his reply was a rebuke.

 

[Sailfree]

When I bought our first Dufour from Portway I was assured that the money was held in a clients account. I accepted this but did wonder what would happen to this "client" account if they went bust as for sure I had no access to it!!

For the third boat, a Jeanneau, I paid deposit by credit card but had to pay the last 90% before delivery as Seaventures insisted that Jeanneau policy was "no cash - no splash".

I did wonder when the actual funds got transferred to Jeanneau and when did I have legal title to the boat.

As these aspects must be of real concern to those considering purchasing at SIB or LIB could anyone experienced in the marine industry please advise?

The Marine indusry does seem littered with bankruptcies so perhaps a new way of selling and guaranteeing customers money is necessary.

 

[Sailfree]

Where was the boat when you paid the balance? I had to pay mine before (i am assured) Jeanneau would release the boat from their factory.

My risk period was therefore the delivery period or did I own the boat in the factory?

 

[Sans Bateau]

What would be the position if the 90% was being funded through finance? Presumably the finance company, with title to the boat would carry the responsibility?

Maybe that is the safest route, deposit by CC then finance.