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Britcar cease trading - No longer open


JonR

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I discovered today that Britcar stopped trading, as of last Friday. Don't know the reason why but it appears it was unexpected. I ordered a part from them last week and while I was there collecting another order there was no hint of anything wrong. A sad loss, particularly for the staff.

Edited by western
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Yes , a massive shame . I've been using them for about 6 years and know some of the staff , I went in on the 24th nov. for my last order collect and the shut down was already in process . 

Some very good people out of work with no warning - never good for the staff that make a business .

Wondering where to take my trade now ? 

Steve

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11 minutes ago, steve b said:

 

Wondering where to take my trade now ? 

 

LRDirect for mail order - they are one of the only ones who offer a choice of pattern through to actual OEM and genuine. Advanced Factors are quite good too - I use them mostly for the D3.

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From the owner on Facebook:

Quote

Okay, I thought I had better let everyone know what is going on, before the rumour mill kicks in, better to hear it from the horse's mouth. 

Yesterday, with great sadness, I had to accept defeat and close Britcar UK Ltd.

After 15 years of trading, the last 2 years have thrown up some major curve balls which I have done my best to overcome. Two years ago, I had a serious buyer lined up for the company and I was planning to retire and spend time with Sandy, my wife, who as many of you know, is suffering from Parkinson’s. 

Then Covid hit, my buyer was stuck in China, and following his instructions, I started to expand the company by taking on more staff and more stock, although this was putting us at a point where our overheads were matching our incomes, I had no reason to doubt that he would complete the deal.

However, after 18 months of being marooned in China, my buyer changed his mind and pulled out, leaving me overstaffed and in a dire position, having taken stock of the situation, our finance team and I established that we could trade out of the situation as long as significant cuts were made, as a result, we cut the staff by 50 percent and cut many unnecessary overheads, the following two months yielded profits, then the next disaster hit us.

In early October, our credit card provider contacted us to inform us that the platform that was the basis of our website was no longer security compliant, which was a shock, and let us know we had 30 working days to launch a new website or cease trading. Having invested over 200k on a new site, directed by our IT manager, who had taken voluntary redundancy in the first round, we didn’t think this would be much of a problem. However, this hope soon evaporated when we were informed that the website was nowhere near ready and would need A LOT of extra money and time that we didn’t have.

We had no choice but to choose an off-the-shelf website and modify it to our needs. This was worked on night and day, without an IT specialist on the team, and we launched it on the 9th of November. However, we immediately experienced issues with processing orders and receiving goods, and sales started dropping rapidly alongside other problems like duplicating purchases for orders, etc. Already being in a precarious position financially, and with these issues compounding the problem, it was evident that we were close to trading insolvently. I personally had cashed in my pension and taken out two personal loans totaling over 50k, which I invested in the company over the last few months.

This is an awkward and difficult time for me right now, and I just need some space for a week to sort things out, I always have a plan, two years ago I thought I was retiring with 2M in the bank, now it is time to start all over, life is funny like that.

 

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21 minutes ago, Retroanaconda said:

From the owner on Facebook:

 

That is very decent of Duncan to open up right in the middle of it and knowing him , there could well be a phoenix materialise in the future .

Wishing him and all the staff and family a much better new year 

Steve

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8 minutes ago, steve b said:

That is very decent of Duncan to open up right in the middle of it and knowing him , there could well be a phoenix materialise in the future .

Wishing him and all the staff and family a much better new year 

Steve

I'd certainly support them if they managed to continue trading. I liked their old website (or at least i was used to it). Its a shame that just the payments bit couldnt be changed but I know nothing about this stuff!

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15 minutes ago, steve b said:

 knowing him , there could well be a phoenix materialise in the future .

 

Indeed Steve, there has been some speculation locally this week given his history

Really sad though for the staff as they were what made Britcar for me, everyone was so helpful and the local aspect of being able to drop in. I have been using them for quite a few years now. Good news is that I know of at least one member of staff who has found something else starting next week

Wonder what will happen to the stock etc? Will the company be bought out or will it all get auctioned off? Or as Steve alludes to will something come back from the ashes

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That is sad to read. I used to order things from them as I liked their website. Also when I made a mistake on my part and ordered the wrong fuel tank for my 110 they exchanged it with no fuss whatsoever. I hope they can manage to find a way to return one day. 

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It’s a shame, both for the owners and staff as their website was the only true reflection of whether an item was actually still in production or not, and as others had said clearly should genuine and source of product options. I also liked the way they photographed a lot of the products next to a ruler, so you could check dimensions, very good for fasteners especially.

I didn’t use them often as once an order was placed it almost went into a black hole. Stuff would always eventually arrive, but you didn’t know when unless you contacted them. 

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14 hours ago, reb78 said:

LRDirect for mail order - they are one of the only ones who offer a choice of pattern through to actual OEM and genuine. Advanced Factors are quite good too - I use them mostly for the D3.

Annoyed with LRDirect already as I ordered from them as the website showed everything I need for this weekend to be in stock or available within 1 day. Looks like the only one that won't arrive

 

I placed 3 orders on Sat 27th

- Turners (300tdi crank seal) . Comms to say dispatched Monday and arrived Tuesday

- Devon 4x4 (Shock absorbers). Comms to say dispatched Tuesday and now have DHL tracking to show will arrive today

- LRDirect (£100 ish of various items). Comms to say all in stock/or will be within a day on Saturday but now radio silence. No way of tracking on the website as no tracking number only the order number. Rang them and get voicemail, will see if they respond

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Thats not so good. I have never had an issue with them. Not that its an excuse but so much of the normal stuff seems to be on longer lead times since COVID and the Suez. I have noticed longer times for everything lately.

D44 do post quickly but their million times markup on everything puts me off somewhat!!

Turners are always good.

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5 minutes ago, reb78 said:

Thats not so good. I have never had an issue with them. Not that its an excuse but so much of the normal stuff seems to be on longer lead times since COVID and the Suez. I have noticed longer times for everything lately.

Bearmach seem to be suffering badly from this with so much out of stock and estimated dates coming back in stock keep getting pushed back which I why I did not order from them

D44 were actually the best combination of in stock/price for the OME Nitro shock absorbers I ordered 

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1 hour ago, reb78 said:

Thats not so good. I have never had an issue with them. Not that its an excuse but so much of the normal stuff seems to be on longer lead times since COVID and the Suez. I have noticed longer times for everything lately.

D44 do post quickly but their million times markup on everything puts me off somewhat!!

Turners are always good.

It seems no one answers the phone or responds to voicemails but sending an email via a link on the website did get a response that it should be dispatched today which is 2 days later than it should be dispatched but could get me sorted for the weekend.

 

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3 hours ago, reb78 said:

Thats not so good. I have never had an issue with them. Not that its an excuse but so much of the normal stuff seems to be on longer lead times since COVID and the Suez. I have noticed longer times for everything lately.

D44 do post quickly but their million times markup on everything puts me off somewhat!!

Turners are always good.

Do you think that a military event in the late 1950s is still having an effect ?

Mo 😉

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