Heatmerchants in recivership

JohnnieK

Hay lads.

I was in my local Heatmerchants today and I was told the group went into receivership last week, has anyone else heard this?

I know there robbing B**tards but they are all over the place and if mine goes it will make life hard for me for sourcing materials:(

anheneti

yeah definitely true, I got a letter off them this morning. Dear Valued Customer........
they are fairly confident they will get a buyer. fingers crossed I would hate to see them go

Billy Bunting

I read a piece over the weekend about that, they dont expect them to go out of business, but i wouldnt be paying for parts on order up front.

It was announced yesterday, 16th February 2012, that an Interim Examiner would be appointed to the BHT Group. This group operates Tubs and Tiles, Heat Merchants and Brooks. Kieran Wallace of KPMG will be appointed for a three month period and the business will trade as normal. The company employs 445 people in around 58 branches nationwide

http://www.insolvencyjournal.ie/home_more_details/12-02-17/BHT_under_Examinership.aspx

DoneDL

Yeah they are in receivership, best thing would be for them to re-open as franchises. Some of their staff are very knowledgable but their prices are set and they do overcharge.

roy rodgers

I was talking to one of the lads today and its seems to be brooks that i pulling the whole group down, so what they are looking for is to break up the group and get rid of long term leases that they have out over 20-25 years at crazy prices.
so all in all it could be a good thing for us plumbers hopefully prices will fall too!!:rolleyes: (i doubt it).
But I say there will be people let go as i can see in my store there is always 3-4 lads standing around doing nothing all day.

MiniGolf

Not to be a Pedantic Pat, but........

They are in "Examinership" - whatever that is??

According to a branch manager I spoke to this allows the various arms of BHT to be split up and sold off separately if they can find a buyer/buyers.
Apparantly, Heatmerchants was making a profit!
As JohnnieK says, they are dear but the handiness of one account for many branches made life easier around the greater Dublin area. Also with the central warehouse in Athlone they usually weren't out of stock of anything for too long... until recently of course :eek:
More "rumours" are that Wolesley and Saint Gobain are interested in the Heatmerchants arm.

Note: Please don't shoot the messenger on this information -i.e. ME!!
I am only passing on what I was told!!

JohnnieK

Saint Gobain are huge. Would they really be interested in Heatmerchants???

I think the one in Brooks in the M1 business park will go. Turvy is only down the road and is one of the ones that makes a profit.

Billy Bunting

I wouldn't believe a word their employees tell you, we all know Joe Bloggs is always last to hear whats going on, just last month Wolseley were reportedly claiming they had sold the business to a private buyer for 5.8m.

Micky Dolenz

Parts centre will be missed. I found a constant eye had to be kept on account as prices could change.

anheneti

wolseley sold off the heatmerchants group about 2 years ago
they made a huge loss on the group
I would doubt they are interested in heatmerchants again

oikster

anheneti wrote: »

wolseley sold off the heatmerchants group about 2 years ago
they made a huge loss on the group
I would doubt they are interested in heatmerchants again

St.Gobain own Bassetts who are a large supplier in NI They also have a branch in Letterkenny. Not sure about Dublin. Would make a pretty easy entry to the market down south. Bad time though but they would be big enough to bear it out if they thought it worthwhile

anheneti

oikster wrote: »

St.Gobain own Bassetts who are a large supplier in NI They also have a branch in Letterkenny. Not sure about Dublin. Would make a pretty easy entry to the market down south. Bad time though but they would be big enough to bear it out if they thought it worthwhile

I wouldn't be surprised if Saint Gobain bought out BHT, but I doubt Woleseley will as they already took a huge hit on the heatmerchants group

JohnnieK

oikster wrote: »

St.Gobain own Bassetts who are a large supplier in NI They also have a branch in Letterkenny. Not sure about Dublin. Would make a pretty easy entry to the market down south. Bad time though but they would be big enough to bear it out if they thought it worthwhile

And they also make lovely licorice all sorts :D:D. I had too.:)

Joey the lips

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0216/bht-business.html


They are not in receivership they are in Examinership there is a massive difference in the terms.(Unless its changed since i heard the news)

They only went into examinership last week and it takes 3 months so unless they vol went into receivership i doubt anything has changed.

This effects Heatmerchants Brooks and Tubs and tiles.

What most likely will happen is the groups will be examined and broken up and bits sold off. I would say Tubs and tiles will be gone. Just no consumer demand out there. I would say due to the backround interest of heatmerchants ie its degree of boiler ownership and agencies it will be saved to a degree. I dont know anything about brooks to comment.


This will mean you lovely tradespeople will still have to pay your bills at the moment. :P

esox28

haha can't run up a huge bill with no stock!!:rolleyes::rolleyes:

DGOBS

Run up whatever bills you like guys, it's the creditors that loose out, not the debtors, they always collect what owed!

oikster

Heard again today that SGB interested

tred

oikster wrote: »

Heard again today that SGB interested

SGB have JP corry, but are interested apparently in HM.
Grafton/management buyout, and a private equity company in the frame......
I think Grafton may have bought BHT's assests in the North allready.

http://www.businessworld.ie/bworld/livenews.htm?a=2931131

Black Bloc

esox28 wrote: »

haha can't run up a huge bill with no stock!!:rolleyes::rolleyes:

I bought some gear from our local Heat Merchants early last week. I asked one of the lads about ordering in a fan and he explained that because of examinership it was easier to use up stock within the group. The general practice in examinership is for creditors to pull back on credit for obvious reasons.

tred

Black Bloc wrote: »

I bought some gear from our local Heat Merchants early last week. I asked one of the lads about ordering in a fan and he explained that because of examinership it was easier to use up stock within the group. The general practice in examinership is for creditors to pull back on credit for obvious reasons.

hetmerchants and tubs just bought by hevac. some redunadncys still in some of the branches. Brookes not part of the package....

JohnnieK

I wonder will there prices come down to match HEVAC, and I wonder will they push SIME boilers through there heatmerchants branches too???

browner85

id say thats doubtful . even if they started using the same instantor fittings as hevac id be happy!!

mathperson

Hey lads what do you think of hevac taking over heat merchants?

JohnnieK

mathperson wrote: »

Hey lads what do you think of hevac taking over heat merchants?

Good news hopefully.
I heard yesterday they owed Baxi over a €100,000 so it getting harder to get baxi parts.

sullzz

mathperson wrote: »

Hey lads what do you think of hevac taking over heat merchants?

Hevac are always decent to deal with hopefully this will follow through with the takeover some of the heatmerchants branches were useless .

nuzzer

bought by hevac I'm sure

TPM

I heard they have closed 4 heatmerchants stores, including portlaoise

sullzz

The only decent branches i have ever come across were deansgrange , naas and rialto , any other stores weren't up to much , if you asked the lads behind the counter for anything he'd stand there with a face like a passport photo , he'd might aswell be working in a newsagents

the_barfly1

TPM wrote: »

I heard they have closed 4 heatmerchants stores, including portlaoise

Really? That sucks. Must look into that tomorrow. I used to work in the Portlaoise branch. A few of the lads there were bang on too.

SmallBalls

Never really had much dealings with Hevac.....what boilers do they stock?

TPM

heatmerchants are back on terms with firebird

JohnnieK

SmallBalls wrote: »

Never really had much dealings with Hevac.....what boilers do they stock?

Sime Boilers