Companies That You Expect to Disappear Soon

[61653 HTAFC]

Anyone with Nationwide? I've been with them since 2012.

Going by their rebrand, I really hope they are not turning into a bank as "building society" has been dropped from the new logo. Also, the name now being lowercase.

We know what happened to Abbey National when they became "abbey" only to be swallowed up by Santander.

Should we Nationwide customers be worried?

I am. The first I knew of the rebrand was when I noticed the icon for the app had changed this morning.

I do hope they aren't going to stop doing the bits that made them different from the other high street offerings, just as I hope that Morrisons won't get rid of the counters which are the main reason I continue to use them.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Oct 2023 ==

I think you had to have two products with them as a minimum to qualify -- I've got two (mortgage and current account), and the wife's got current account and an ISA, for example.

Guess I need to chase that up, as I'm pretty sure I got nothing despite having two current accounts and an ISA!

 

[gnolife]

As mentioned earlier about discount stores changing their names to reflect multi pricing moving away from £1 per item - I can see one store "One Below" has changed to "One Beyond" as most things would be now over £1

There used to be a shop in Northenden which had a sign proudly declaring that everything was £1 or less or more

 

[skyhigh]

As mentioned earlier about discount stores changing their names to reflect multi pricing moving away from £1 per item - I can see one store "One Below" has changed to "One Beyond" as most things would be now over £1

Over a year ago!

 

[Peter Sarf]

I know W.H.Smith has been mentioned before but my local branch has definitely lost the plot.

For over a year the doors into W.H.Smith from the first floor of the Croydon Whitgift shopping centre have been locked shut. There were no signs on them. Now I notice one pair of doors have signs saying words to the effect of use the other doors. The second set of doors have a sign saying doors out of use !. Nothing saying go downstairs to get in. Worse still one of the two pairs downstairs have been locked shut for over a year !. Some months ago I noticed the internal escalator from ground to first in W.H.Smith was walled off and the stairs also blocked off. Today I noticed plenty of signs inside reminding people of the clearance outlet upstairs - that is not accessible. I even asked if it was a temporary closure - the answer was no and its been closed for months. They really really ought to sort their signs out.

Does not say much for their commitment to the high street stores.

 

[Jamesrob637]

There used to be a shop in Northenden which had a sign proudly declaring that everything was £1 or less or more

Northenden Manchester or another Northenden?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Northenden Manchester or another Northenden?

Is there any other Northenden except for the one a few miles to the South of Manchester?!

 

[Busaholic]

There used to be a shop in Northenden which had a sign proudly declaring that everything was £1 or less or more

Is it a case that the shop closed, or that the sign was removed? Trading Standards would be on to that with a flash.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

I know W.H.Smith has been mentioned before but my local branch has definitely lost the plot.

For over a year the doors into W.H.Smith from the first floor of the Croydon Whitgift shopping centre have been locked shut. There were no signs on them. Now I notice one pair of doors have signs saying words to the effect of use the other doors. The second set of doors have a sign saying doors out of use !. Nothing saying go downstairs to get in. Worse still one of the two pairs downstairs have been locked shut for over a year !. Some months ago I noticed the internal escalator from ground to first in W.H.Smith was walled off and the stairs also blocked off. Today I noticed plenty of signs inside reminding people of the clearance outlet upstairs - that is not accessible. I even asked if it was a temporary closure - the answer was no and its been closed for months. They really really ought to sort their signs out.

Does not say much for their commitment to the high street stores.

John Menzies probably saw the writing on the wall back in the 1990s when they sold their High Street stores to WHS.

I don't think WHS is in danger of disappearing for good as a whole but it could withdraw fully from the High Street to focus where it is more successful like airports & service stations etc.

I do remember being so shocked to see WHS at Melbourne's Southern Cross station in Australia, all that distance away! Then I learnt WHS has stores worldwide in travel hubs so I believe this is where their future lies post-High Street.

As Peter puts it above, a lot of WHS High Street stores feel tatty & neglected or downsized, like they moved from a large prime unit at Bristol's Mall at Cribbs to a smaller Card Factory-like sized store.

Belfast city centre no longer has a WHS style store since the flagship branch was sold to their Irish counterpart Easons but this permanently closed in the pandemic and never reopened since.

Why have WHS on the High Street when you can get books online or from The Works bargain stores or from supermarkets which also do them as well as stationery, newspapers and lottery tickets etc?

Also for books, Waterstones would offer a more pleasant shopping experience if willing to pay extra.

Then WHS unsurprisingly would do better say at Heathrow Airport where they are the only option where you can buy a book, you are basically forced to use them if you would need a book for the flight!

 

[Peter Sarf]

John Menzies probably saw the writing on the wall back in the 1990s when they sold their High Street stores to WHS.

I don't think WHS is in danger of disappearing for good as a whole but it could withdraw fully from the High Street to focus where it is more successful like airports & service stations etc.

I do remember being so shocked to see WHS at Melbourne's Southern Cross station in Australia, all that distance away! Then I learnt WHS has stores worldwide in travel hubs so I believe this is where their future lies post-High Street.

As Peter puts it above, a lot of WHS High Street stores feel tatty & neglected or downsized, like they moved from a large prime unit at Bristol's Mall at Cribbs to a smaller Card Factory-like sized store.

Belfast city centre no longer has a WHS style store since the flagship branch was sold to their Irish counterpart Easons but this permanently closed in the pandemic and never reopened since.

Why have WHS on the High Street when you can get books online or from The Works bargain stores or from supermarkets which also do them as well as stationery, newspapers and lottery tickets etc?

Then WHS unsurprisingly would do better say at Heathrow Airport where they are the only option where you can buy a book, you are basically forced to use them if you would need a book for the flight!

I agree about transport hubs. The problem will be all the other stationery that I don't seem to buy so often !.

 

[Busaholic]

Why have WHS on the High Street when you can get books online or from The Works bargain stores or from supermarkets which also do them as well as stationery, newspapers and lottery tickets.

The Works only sells so-called bargain books though, and has already collapsed twice into pre-pack administration. Supermarkets are mostly quite restricted in stationery terms, especially on notepaper and envelopes, which is probably why WHS can charge so much for those items. They have cut their book sections in most stores I've been in, and their discount on cover prices has fallen too. WHS has a much broader selection of magazines too, a boon to those like me who used to buy them from now non-existent independent newsagents.

 

[birchesgreen]

The Works seems to be moving away from selling books, our local one has just 2 shelves now for books, the rest of the store is arts supplies, stationery, toys et cetera.

 

[Russel]

The Works seems to be moving away from selling books, our local one has just 2 shelves now for books, the rest of the store is arts supplies, stationery, toys et cetera.

There book selection was never the best anyway, usually older titles being sold at a reduced price. I've brought a couple of railway book from them for a very good price but they were more impulse purchases.

It must be working for them, my local branch always has plenty of customers.

 

[Peter Sarf]

There book selection was never the best anyway, usually older titles being sold at a reduced price. I've brought a couple of railway book from them for a very good price but they were more impulse purchases.

It must be working for them, my local branch always has plenty of customers.

True. The branch of The Works which is upstairs in the Whitgift Centre (Croydon) often has more people in it than the Ground floor W.H.Smith that is also a bit of a short cut out onto the main shopping street.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Is there any other Northenden except for the one a few miles to the South of Manchester?!

Don't know of any but that's not to say one doesn't exist!

 

[Busaholic]

Is there any other Northenden except for the one a few miles to the South of Manchester?!

Preston?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Preston?

Preston Northenden? Noted what you did there!

 

[jb108822]

The Works seems to be moving away from selling books, our local one has just 2 shelves now for books, the rest of the store is arts supplies, stationery, toys et cetera.

Yeah, agreed. I find it quite frustrating, really - used to be able to get a good variety of books in there, but there's nowhere near the same variety now as there used to be. Also, the stores often seem disorganised and with a confusing layout.

 

[richw]

The Works seems to be moving away from selling books, our local one has just 2 shelves now for books, the rest of the store is arts supplies, stationery, toys et cetera.

That’s been the case at my local store for years.

 

[GCH100]

The Bargain Book industry anyway isn't strong, quite often the stores in Wigan, Leigh and Bolton that The Works operates, have been empty of customers when I have visited, and also they haven't had transport books for a couple of years now, since they stopped selling Haynes Manuals. Previous to The Works, County Books and Book Clearance Centre's closed, there isn't really a need for them as there lots of book bargains on the internet.

What I miss about the loss of several WHSmiths is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain Transport Magazines without having to pay over the odds for them online, as they charge £2.00 postage roughly on every single title.

 

[Ashley Hill]

County Books and Book Clearance Centre's closed, there isn't really a need for them as there lots of book bargains on the internet.

Didn’t these sell mostly seconds? Books where the pictures were slightly too dark/light or the captions had words missing etc. These would be vastly discounted but if you weren’t too worried about the quality you’d get a bargain.

 

[birchesgreen]

The Bargain Book industry anyway isn't strong, quite often the stores in Wigan, Leigh and Bolton that The Works operates, have been empty of customers when I have visited, and also they haven't had transport books for a couple of years now, since they stopped selling Haynes Manuals. Previous to The Works, County Books and Book Clearance Centre's closed, there isn't really a need for them as there lots of book bargains on the internet.

Yes i bought loads of those from the Works, though Haynes themselves seem to have stopped producing the non original workshop style books which is a shame as some of their extended series, on the Class 50 and Concorde for example, were decent books.

 

[52290]

I expect Marstons PLC to disappear in the not too distant future. The company have already hived off their brewing interests into a joint venture with Carlsberg in which Marstons hold a minority 40% of the shares. Marstons PLC is just a pub operating company now. They haven't paid their shareholders a dividend since January 2020 and they are having to sell off tranches of pubs in an attempt to pay off their debt. The shares just before the pandemic stood at around £1 and are now at about 30p. So a sad state of affairs in the former Wolverhampton and Dudley brewery co.

 

[trebor79]

The Bargain Book industry anyway isn't strong, quite often the stores in Wigan, Leigh and Bolton that The Works operates, have been empty of customers when I have visited, and also they haven't had transport books for a couple of years now, since they stopped selling Haynes Manuals. Previous to The Works, County Books and Book Clearance Centre's closed, there isn't really a need for them as there lots of book bargains on the internet.

I think the bargain book business has also been impacted by the fact that printers can turn round print runs much more quickly. So publishers don't have to try and guess what size print run to order, and then have a warehouse full of books to pulp or flog off cheap if they get it wrong. They can just order smaller a run to start with and if it sells well, order another run.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Oct 2023 ==

I expect Marstons PLC to disappear in the not too distant future. The company have already hived off their brewing interests into a joint venture with Carlsberg in which Marstons hold a minority 40% of the shares. Marstons PLC is just a pub operating company now. They haven't paid their shareholders a dividend since January 2020 and they are having to sell off tranches of pubs in an attempt to pay off their debt. The shares just before the pandemic stood at around £1 and are now at about 30p. So a sad state of affairs in the former Wolverhampton and Dudley brewery co.

That's a shame. Unlike Greene King, Marstons tended to keep the regional breweries they bought running (at least some of them). I bet Heineken will consolidate it all. Last time I had a bottle of Jennings it didn't taste right and was too fizzy, then I spotted on the bottle "Brewed in Cockermouth or at one of our other breweries", the latter part of that sentence being a new addition .

 

[52290]

That's a shame. Unlike Greene King, Marstons tended to keep the regional breweries they bought running (at least some of them). I bet Heineken will consolidate it all. Last time I had a bottle of Jennings it didn't taste right and was too fizzy, then I spotted on the bottle "Brewed in Cockermouth or at one of our other breweries", the latter part of that sentence being a new addition .
[/QUOTE]
Carlsberg Marstons closed the Jennings Brewery in Cockermouth in October of last year. The one remaining Jennings beer, Cumberland Ale, is brewed in Wolverhampton. The company have announced that the Wychwood Brewery in Witney will close next month. They have also sold the former Charles Wells brewery in Bedford to the Spanish producers of Estrella lager and put up for sale the Ringwood brewery in Hampshire. This leaves only the Banks's brewery in Wolverhampton and the Marstons brewery in Burton on Trent under the ownership of Carlsberg Marstons.
I wouldn't think that the iconic Burton brewery has much of a future under the Danish lager makers. It uses the unique and quite expensive Burton Union system to produce Pedigree and to propagate yeast for the other beers. That's something the Danes won't understand.
I suspect the Marstons 40% share of Carlsberg Marstons will eventually be snapped up by Carlsberg.

 

[trebor79]

Barstewards!

 

[Peter Sarf]

I expect Marstons PLC to disappear in the not too distant future. The company have already hived off their brewing interests into a joint venture with Carlsberg in which Marstons hold a minority 40% of the shares. Marstons PLC is just a pub operating company now. They haven't paid their shareholders a dividend since January 2020 and they are having to sell off tranches of pubs in an attempt to pay off their debt. The shares just before the pandemic stood at around £1 and are now at about 30p. So a sad state of affairs in the former Wolverhampton and Dudley brewery co.

That's a great shame. My favourite beer is Marston Pedigree. I do like the taste of what comes from the Burton Sets.

 

[WatcherZero]

Safestyle Windows went into administration on Friday and the administrators have decided over the weekend to wind it up rather than seek new owners. I dont know whether to be sad or glad I never have to hear their adverts again...

 

[Peter Sarf]

Safestyle Windows went into administration on Friday and the administrators have decided over the weekend to wind it up rather than seek new owners. I dont know whether to be sad or glad I never have to hear their adverts again...

I vaguely recall a South Wales replacement window firm suddenly folding a couple of weeks ago. It was said then that there was a surplus of supply and a lack of demand due to people saving on home improvements. How many more replacement window firms are finding trading conditions difficult ?.

 

[Dai Corner]

I vaguely recall a South Wales replacement window firm suddenly folding a couple of weeks ago. It was said then that there was a surplus of supply and a lack of demand due to people saving on home improvements. How many more replacement window firms are finding trading conditions difficult ?.

I hope some others in south Wales are. I might get a good price on the new patio doors I've been procrastinating about for a year or two now.

 

[PG]

I hope some others in south Wales are. I might get a good price on the new patio doors I've been procrastinating about for a year or two now.

Depending on who you buy from you may find that any guarantee (unless insurance backed) could be worthless if the company subsequently succumbs to a continuation of the same difficult trading conditions.