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Future palls for indebted network
Page 7
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Exclusive!
THE FINANCIAL DIRECTOR of troubled pallet network Pallnet, which is believed to have gone in the red in the four months since its launch, has told CM the firm is "in limbo".
Pallnet had 45 members and operated from a Birmingham hub with a base in Market Harborough. It was temporarily closed for restructuring in March, with management blaming its problems on a lack of membership commitment. But the company's former operations manager, Ron Small,
returned from holiday last week to find the buildings empty and no staff to be seen.
On phoning financial director Richard Piggott he was told the company had been disbanded. "I wasn't particularly surprised," says Small. "It was in the wind."
One former Pallnet company, which is owed a five-figure sum, has been trying to contact chairman Roger Ferguson for the past two weeks without success. A company spokesman says: "We are owed a lot of money from Pallnet but are not taking any action as there's no money to dds that
pulled out of Pallnet after "a funny feeling" it would not be paid.
Another former member says several of the members started withdrawing from Pallnet after the initial six weeks, because too few pallets were being moved around the network and they had little confidence in its financial health.
He adds that Pallnet requested a £5,000 investment from each member, soon after its launch with a view to members becoming shareholders, but most of them rejected this proposition. Financial director Richard Piggot says the firm is "in limbo at the
ffibment,"but that ft to comment further.