Maplin "Insurers cast doubt over future of Maplin" (now CLOSING stores)

[bd139]

Similar to the one in Staines. I asked for a cast aluminium enclosure and I got a look back akin to a cow chewing grass. No words came out of the guy.

[donotdespisethesnake]

Looks like Maplin and Toys R Us will close down, plus other retailers at risk. It's part of a continuing trend in retail sector. I worked briefly in the retail sector, for most of the week the shop was virtually empty, I always wondered how they made any profit at all. Obviously the answer was a high markup, but that makes them very vulnerable to competition. It doesn't take much in the way of competition from internet sales to destroy the profit margin of High Street retailers.

In the UK people just buy the cheapest junk they can find, they don't care about quality or source. However, companies that don't adapt business models are bound to fail. I guess you can blame the management, but shutting down all the shops and converting to an internet retailer like Amazon would be a pretty bold move.

My first introduction to electronics was via Maplin and mail order "please wait 21 days for delivery...". There were other specialist suppliers like Electrovalue, but Maplin was quite accessible. I can't say I would be sorry to see it go, clearly the current Maplin is about reselling consumer tat, it's a long way from it's roots.

About the only thing I regularly buy from Maplin is a particular component box branded "Proskit", Storage Box with Removable Inserts, I haven't found another source with similar size and quality (and cheaper of course ).

[grumpydoc]

They don't understand why I refuse to buy a naked CMOS logic gate dropped into a plastic self seal bag. They must have destroyed hundreds of them this way. Wouldn't have taken much to sell them in individual ESD  bags like any sane supplier would.

Yep, they did that to me as well .

Its got to the point that I'm just waiting for the liquidation sale

[bd139]

Its got to the point that I'm just waiting for the liquidation sale

It'll still be cheaper to buy the stuff from Tayda, which is better quality anyway and you'll just end up with a load of shit you don't need.

[grumpydoc]

Its got to the point that I'm just waiting for the liquidation sale

It'll still be cheaper to buy the stuff from Tayda, which is better quality anyway and you'll just end up with a load of shit you don't need.

Yes but that wouldn't give me the same sense of satisfaction 

One or two items in the tools section might be worth buying if the discount gets deep enough.

[bd139]

They only seem to sell Chinesium crap tools. I have enough problems with bin space with my collection being every two weeks already

[AndyC_772]

They don't understand why I refuse to buy a naked CMOS logic gate dropped into a plastic self seal bag. They must have destroyed hundreds of them this way. Wouldn't have taken much to sell them in individual ESD  bags like any sane supplier would.

Yep, they did that to me as well .

Its got to the point that I'm just waiting for the liquidation sale

Me too, though under the circumstances it wasn't worth my time and effort to argue. Life is just too short.

[AndyC_772]

They only seem to sell Chinesium crap tools. I have enough problems with bin space with my collection being every two weeks already

Yep! I bought a crimp tool from them a few years ago. Total crap, it simply didn't squeeze the connector tight enough to retain the wire.

I took it back and we went through every unit on display trying to find a 'good' one. No luck.

I bought one from a motor factor round the corner instead, apparently identical but with blue handles instead of red, similar price, and branded "Laser". No doubt it's just another Chinese copy of a copy of a copy of some 'original' tool, but it works perfectly.

[bd139]

I have been buying quality tools recently, particularly lots of Wera stuff. In the last decade I haven't had to replace a single item. Seems to be paying off. I must have got through 50 quids worth of cheap screwdrivers in the 5 years before that.

[Avacee]

.. and there goes Toy'R'Us into Administration .... time to get down there and pick up some bargains
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43225248

Mustn't spend too much so I can hoover up components at Maplin's later

[Avacee]

Boom!... Maplin enters administration .. 200 stores, 2500 jobs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43223175

Now to put on one's mercenary hat and wait for "The Sale"

[Tandy]

When private equity get involved the prognoses is always bad.

They simply did not understand the business. Maplin was primarily a Catalogue & on-line operation, their core customers being hobbyists and those with an interest in technology and gadgets. They had a handful of small shops in low rent areas in large cities for convenience where people didn't want to wait for delivery.

Rutland Partners made the mistake of seeing a small profitable business and thinking that it would scale into a big business. The idea of having 200 stores was never going to work, anyone with any clue about the business could have seen it. This is the problem with running a business on a spreadsheet.

[fcb]

They simply did not understand the business. Maplin was primarily a Catalogue & on-line operation, their core customers being hobbyists and those with an interest in technology and gadgets. They had a handful of small shops in low rent areas in large cities for convenience where people didn't want to wait for delivery.

Excellent summation.  I can't think of a better way of putting it.

I still feel it's a shame as I used to know the staff in Leeds well and pop in a couple of times a week (in the early-mid 90's). I've been into a my local Maplin probably twice in the last 10 years, just shows how relevant they became to me.

[cowasaki]

Time was Maplin were actually useful, but you are pretty much looking pre internet, and these days all the full service component vendors will deal with private individuals on reasonable terms (I well remember RS refusing to play because I did not have a VAT number, you don't get that bullshit any more).

Regards, Dan.

I remember contacting RS for an account when I was the technical services manager at an Acorn dealership "Orion Computers".  The rep came round and it felt like a bloody interview!  We spent a fortune there including my Fluke 100MHz  digital storage scope costing £2500 in 1991/2 I still use them for some stuff as their choice is better and their site is good but their prices are on another planet!  I wanted 3 4mm banana sockets to replace the sockets on my PM2525 and had to buy each of the three in pairs (so 6 sockets in total).  It was £14 in total which would have bought about 200 from China :-)

[Howardlong]

When private equity get involved the prognoses is always bad.

Correct, at least a lot of the time anyway! PE is often just a technical veneer for VC.

PE modus operandi is to see a small but reasonably successful operation, then expand the operation with the expectation of reaping the profit from re-selling perhaps 3 to 5 years later. In order to expand rapidly, they throw in tons of debt. In addition to the debt, landlords have been exceptionally greedy in the past three years or so.

There is a very close correlation with the restaurant industry, covered pretty well IMHO in this article from last week. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/22/casual-dining-crunch-jamies-italian-strada-byron-struggling

[StillTrying]

.. and there goes Toy'R'Us into Administration .... time to get down there and pick up some bargains
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43225248
Mustn't spend too much so I can hoover up components at Maplin's later

"The business faced the slump in the pound after the Brexit vote, weak consumer confidence and a withdrawal of credit insurance."

"Like many other retailers, Maplin has been hit hard by a slowdown in consumer spending and more expensive imports as the pound has weakened,"

"High Street chains have been badly affected by lower consumer spending, higher inflation and competition from online rivals."

Meanwhile the gov. keep saying we have (more than)full employment, a strong economy and never had it so good. In some parts of the UK businesses are falling like a pack of of cards, in fact some of them are cards/balloons shops!

Edit: Bye bye Maplins and Toys'R'Us. (is there all that much difference between them )

[Tandy]

"The business faced the slump in the pound after the Brexit vote, weak consumer confidence and a withdrawal of credit insurance."

"Like many other retailers, Maplin has been hit hard by a slowdown in consumer spending and more expensive imports as the pound has weakened,"

"High Street chains have been badly affected by lower consumer spending, higher inflation and competition from online rivals."

Typical clueless journalist fluff that doesn't address the real issues.

Rutland partners loaded the company with debt and expanded the business way beyond what the customer base could support.

Business Rates and rent for retail space in the UK is excessive, landlords are better leaving a unit empty and then claiming there is insufficient interest to support an application for change of use into residential for much greater profits.

Maplin were in recent years selling mostly cheap Chinese toys, the same items could be found on-line for half the price from UK sellers or if you were prepared to wait for the slow boat from China you could get them for a quarter of the price.

If your business survival is dependent on a 2% change in currency exchange rate then your business model is broken in the first place.

[Towger]

This Maplin closed during the summer.
e

https://www.mercuryvapour.co.uk/2017/05/21/goodbye-maplin-teesside-park-i-hardly-knew-ye/

I am can't think of any bargains in the sale, apart from component cabinets etc.  Even at 70% off they are expensive for parts.  I have no interest in Disco Dave tat, cheap CCTV systems and remote control cars.  Maybe best to wait until stuff is being dumped...

[nfmax]

Time was Maplin were actually useful, but you are pretty much looking pre internet, and these days all the full service component vendors will deal with private individuals on reasonable terms (I well remember RS refusing to play because I did not have a VAT number, you don't get that bullshit any more).

Regards, Dan.

I remember contacting RS for an account when I was the technical services manager at an Acorn dealership "Orion Computers".  The rep came round and it felt like a bloody interview!  We spent a fortune there including my Fluke 100MHz  digital storage scope costing £2500 in 1991/2 I still use them for some stuff as their choice is better and their site is good but their prices are on another planet!  I wanted 3 4mm banana sockets to replace the sockets on my PM2525 and had to buy each of the three in pairs (so 6 sockets in total).  It was £14 in total which would have bought about 200 from China :-)

RS, long ago when they were Radiospares, were basically a specialist distributor servicing the retail radio & radio/TV repair shop trade. They weren't going to queer their pitch by selling direct to their customers' customers.

Those days are long gone, of course.

[Cerebus]

Rutland Partners made the mistake of seeing a small profitable business and thinking that it would scale into a big business. The idea of having 200 stores was never going to work, anyone with any clue about the business could have seen it. This is the problem with running a business on a spreadsheet.

No, Rutland Partners only got involved in June 2014, when the branch network was already pretty much what it is today, give or take a handful of stores.

[Tandy]

No, Rutland Partners only got involved in June 2014, when the branch network was already pretty much what it is today, give or take a handful of stores.

Quite right it was the the previous lot Montagu Private Equity who took over in 2004 that drove the expansion. But same thing they loaded it with debt and due to a complete lack of understanding of the business tried to expand it in the hopes of huge returns.

[bd139]

It's just a shit sandwich. Needs to go in the bin!

[Cerebus]

Boom!... Maplin enters administration .. 200 stores, 2500 jobs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43223175

Now to put on one's mercenary hat and wait for "The Sale"

You may be waiting a long time. Maplin had a plan for a "pre-pack" administration in place, although I've heard nothing of it for a week or so. That means that there is , or was, someone already lined up to buy the assets of Maplin as they stand from the administrator, but without buying the actual company. The usual way pre-pack administrations work is that a new company picks up where the old one left off, but - as a completely new entity - isn't saddled with any of the debts, etc, etc, that went with the old company. Many people regard this as sailing close to the wind, but in the new shiny world of Finance Capitalism it has become an acceptable business practice.

There's no mention of it in the current news which either means that the reporting is crap because they don't understand the idea of a pre-pack administration or the reporting is crap because the pre-pack administration fell through and they are failing to report that.

[Tandy]

There's no mention of it in the current news which either means that the reporting is crap because they don't understand the idea of a pre-pack administration or the reporting is crap because the pre-pack administration fell through and they are failing to report that.

I highly suspect that those interested have run the numbers and realised that taking on 200 stores is just not going to work in today's climate. The way I see this going is that leases will be rejected apart from a small number of well placed locations, then a new package will be sold that is essentially the on-line business and a handful of stores that are profitable. The trouble is Maplin is not a consumer electronics brand like Currys.

The problem is the brand is squarely associated with hobbyists, a general retailer is not going to see much value in a brand that does not have mass appeal. In fact this is the heart of their failure, they thought they could attract a much wider customer base than they actually could.

[coppice]

The problem is the brand is squarely associated with hobbyists, a general retailer is not going to see much value in a brand that does not have mass appeal. In fact this is the heart of their failure, they thought they could attract a much wider customer base than they actually could.

Our local Maplin store doesn't have any hobbyist appeal at all. It seems to focus entirely on computer bits and pieces, and security systems.