Note
| To: | All Staff |
| From: | Andrew Hulcoop |
| Re: | COVID-19 |
| Date: | 22nd June 2020 |
We’ve now had three weeks being able to fully open the doors of the businesses and we continue to be pleased with the level of business that we’re seeing. We were always optimistic about the aftersales business bouncing back fairly quickly but didn’t really know what would happen in the sales departments.
I was probably expecting to see vehicle sales (including Motorbikes but excluding Corporate) achieving somewhere close to 250 units in the period June 1st to 21st but this number has hugely exceeded expectations and I’m pleased to be able to report sales volumes of circa 450 units in the period. We’re not expecting to continue selling 150 vehicles per week for much longer, however we are still forecasting to sell an average of circa 110 vehicles per week for the period July 1st to December 31st.
Whilst we are optimistic about the remainder of 2020 and the viability of the business beyond that date, we have spent considerable time looking at efficiencies and potential cost savings within the business. As a result of this work we may be changing some of our processes and there may be an element of restructuring. Unfortunately, these proposed changes may potentially see a number of job losses across the group. The plan isn’t for mass job losses and we predict the number to be less than 5% of total employees. When any business announces the consideration of redundancies, there is always a period of uncertainty and huge concern.
We plan to keep this period to as shorter time as possible therefore the consultation process will commence today. Those who are affected will be contacted individually during the next few days to discuss the process.
This note will come as a shock to many, especially on the back of the levels of business that we are currently enjoying. I’ve spoken many times about protecting the core and our responsibility of running the business to the best of our ability. We therefore have an obligation to constantly review our cost base and efficiency and where we think we can remove cost without a detrimental impact on the businesses ability to do business, then we have to take action.
We understand that this is likely to be an upsetting and difficult time for those involved.
Andrew