As I understand it, French News was profitable but 'incoming money suddenly plunged from early October' and by December they [French News] were unable to pay for the print run or pay the staff wage bill.
This underlines the stark reality of how a seemingly healthy business, selling print one minute, can come to a grinding halt in such a short space of time.
Speaking on the Fab Frog website, French News editor, Miranda Neame explained that because of their position, they were left with 'no choice but to declare ourselves insolvent to the commercial court.'
The December edition will be put on-line [French News] but it is not known how long the website will last.
It is a tragedy for French News but it highlights how quickly things can turn and the garden industry is certainly not immune to the pressures of a down-turn in fortunes.
On the 30th of November, Blec Landscaping Equipment went into administration with the loss of thirty five jobs.
Only recently the Landscape Institute announced that it was to make redundancies because of a drop in one third of its advertising revenue.
The knock on effect of companies folding leads to a reduction in advertising revenues at magazines and something something has to give.
In a response to a comment I left on the Hort Week website, Leslie Kossoff suggested that fear should be ignored saying: "Don't go there. Don't listen. Don't fall into the trap of making your decisions based on fear.
"Fear paralyzes. It makes everything seem impossible."
Unfortunately, whilst the mind may well suggest we try to remain bullish when confronted with extraordinary adversity, the opportunities, when revenues dry up, will be harder to act upon due to a restricted fighting fund.
Fear will not enter into the game; pure economics will dictate when and who can take advantage of investing and trading away from the market woes. If you have money in the bank and you have kept your powder dry previous to the down-turn taking hold, then you can seize the opportunity.
From an editors point of view, there will be more than one dilemma that has to be faced. For example, the loss of Blec will mean that their advertising budget will be lost from the marketplace and whilst I have no idea of the amount of spend, I would envisage a considerable sum in the region of five figures.
Only today on the Hort Week site there is a report of the Woolworths collapse and the implications it has on horticulture suppliers who now fear that Woolworths, now in administration and searching for a saviour, will not be a buyer for orders they have prepared for January.
AE Roberts, Mr Fothergills, Scotts, De Ree and Porters Horticultural will have to now find buyers for their products or risk losing out and I suspect, a considerable amount of money.
Recent Comments