George White

[johnp]

It is a shame, i have bought from George white before and always had a good service from them.

[scorpakid]

not good to see anyone lose their job's......... but i have never been a liker of these big supermarket style bike shops..... always staffed by utter cocks that know shag all about biking other than sellin the latest 1000r ninjkwakisukiaha...etc....

i needed an indicator lens desperately once... as usual big dealer never had it in stock...think i had a gpz500s then....... i noticed another bike in the shop had same indicators..... asked the muppet behind the counter if i could have the one off the shop bike as it was only going to be a day or 2 before new lens was delivered..... i got fobbed off with...aw.. that lens looks the same mate but its different.... utter bolx..was the same indicators on all the gpz's at the time..

never went there again ...

clutch cable went on me bike unexpectedly once...i managed to limp to the nearest small shop... didnt have the correct one but the mechanic loaned me a brand new one that i could adapt to get me home... i posted it back to them with £10 attatched.... you do not get that from big dealers...

if it goes back to more small shops with properly priced gear...bring it on...! was much better like that anyway..

[Sgt Ernie Bilko]

More than 60 jobs have been axed as administrators were brought in to Swindon-based motorcycle retailer George White Motors.

Richard Hawes and Robin Allen, of business advisory firm Deloitte, have been appointed joint administrators to the company, which also operates a site in Plymouth.

George White's Plymouth site has closed with 27 redundancies while 23 members of staff lost their jobs at the Swindon base. The company's Torbay site shut with five losses.

Sites in Donington, Slough and Bolton also suffered job cuts, with a total of 61 employees being made redundant.

The company, established for more than 50 years, has an annual turnover of about £25m.

Poor trading results over the last two years coupled with increasingly difficult market conditions and low margins have resulted in cash flow constraints, said the administrators.

In the absence of a significant cash injection into the company the directors were unable to continue trading the business.

Hawes, joint administrator and partner in Deloitte’s restructuring services team, said: "There are no funds currently available to be able to continue to trade the business. Unfortunately, there was no other option but to make 61 employees redundant.

"Nine employees have been retained for a short period to assist the administrators with completing outstanding customer orders and to complete an orderly closure of the sites occupied by the company."

Turning over 25m? Guess overheads must have been massive....

[jamie]

they bought gt motorcycles on the never never over two years of a bloke called grainger that was the torbay .st austell and the brand new showroom in plymouth.

they shut st austell last year and laid a few off in plymouth

he says they are well behind on payments involved in buying the business and also rent on the new plymouth showrooms which he kept the free hold and leased out to them
he still has title to quite a bit of stock in there aswell

[SpikeOne]

Sadly, they were too expensive.
I looked into GW in Swindon when I bought my Vity, their price was, an imoveable 1850 quid. I picked mine up from the local Yamaha dealer for 1385 OTR.
Same thing with the Xmax 250 when I was looking at that. No competition on price.
Says it all really.
Sad, but a sign of the times.

[Sgt Ernie Bilko]

Heard that Piaggio have over 100 units in George White...

[barryG]

They were selling Yamaha Majesty 400s last year at £4995.... amazing price but a high finance deal. Last time I went they had a deal on the PX125, you could put just £99 down and take their own finance out and it came to around £3900

[rtfm]

They were selling Yamaha Majesty 400s last year at £4995.... amazing price but a high finance deal. Last time I went they had a deal on the PX125, you could put just £99 down and take their own finance out and it came to around £3900

Bargain of the century

You think they'll have any decent bankrupcy stock or is it likely to be sold on to other retailers?

[Sgt Ernie Bilko]

You think they'll have any decent bankrupcy stock or is it likely to be sold on to other retailers?

Might have a couple of Piaggio's!

[Sgt Ernie Bilko]

Might be a glimmer of hope....

The shock closure came after George White Motors Limited, which has the UK's biggest motorcycle dealership chain, went into administration after trading funds dried up.

Mike Grainger, former owner of GT Motorcycles before selling it to George White in 2010, was about to fly abroad yesterday when he was forced to return to Plymouth.

He told The Herald: "It's a very sad day for me. The whole lot has gone."

Mr Grainger, who still owns the building, said he would now explore whether to mount a rescue bid.