Essential reading for retailers and suppliers in the home improvement market

Associated Lighting Group in administration

Published: 11 August 2010
Lighting and electrical distributor calls in administrators, axing 58 staff at its subsidiaries Ring Lamp Company and Trident.
The company, which was formed in September last year following the merger of Ring Lamp Co and Trident Ltd, yesterday appointed Hunter Kelly and Charles King of Ernst & Young as joint administrators.

Associated Lighting Group employed 123 people - 94 at Ring Lamp Company and 29 at Trident. Of these, 33 members of staff have been made redundant at Leeds-based Ring and 25 at Trident's Salford site.

Several directors resigned from the boards of Ring Lamp Company and its parent Associated Lighting more than a month ago, including Bruce Davidson, who held his post for almost 20 years.

Mr Davidson tendered his resignation on July 1 - the same day as fellow director David Green, who also held a directorship on both boards, following the merger of his company Trident with Ring in September. Another director, Andrew Rhodes, who joined Ring in September, handed in his resignation on July 9.

Ernst & Young's Mr King commented; "Management has been working hard to integrate both businesses, but surplus stock, pressure from creditors and difficult market conditions earlier in the year have ultimately led to our appointment.

"We intend to continue to trade the business whilst seeking a buyer. The Lighting Factory Shop on Gelderd Road in Leeds remains open for business."

Interested parties should contact Gurpreet Jagpal at Ernst & Young on 07814 029417.

While Companies House and Creditsafe still show Ring Lamp Company and Associated Lighting Group as active, Creditsafe had already cut its lending recommendation to zero, as they are overdue in filing financial results for the year to September 30, 2009.

Ring's sales plummeted from £69m in 2003-04 to £50.5m in 2004-05 and then £31.4m in 2005-06. There was a slight recovery to £32.8m in 2006-07, however sales dropped down again to £27.8m in 2007-08. Despite this, the company remained in net profit until 2007-08, when it went from a net profit of £2.2m to a net loss of £7m.

Calls to its Leeds-based office went unanswered today and the company that hosts Ring Lighting's website told DIY Week it has also been trying to reach the wholesaler to determine the future of the site.

While the domain name still appears to be registered, the site is no longer active and a spokesperson for An Agency Called England, who hosts the website, explained: "I'm not sure what's happening. We're actually trying to get hold of them ourselves to find out what's going on. We had a conversation with them a year ago, asking us to take it [the site] down."

He added: "I think they were taken over by another company but I'm not sure what's going on now."

Comments

Published prior to March 2014
By ring france
danny rivlin is the clever bloke he saw it coming,and went to israel to forget about it.
Published prior to March 2014
By C H Bones
I bought three light fittings from Focus in February 2010, which, between them, had 10 Ring GU10 "long-life" bulbs. Four of them have failed in less than two years. (Life expectancy given on packaging was 6 years!) A 40% failure rate is appalling. No wonder they've gone out of business.
Published prior to March 2014
By howard jones
i have a lighting shop and 10 years ago i was dealing with trident. one day out of the blue they said they would not be dealing with (small independents). i was buying lights from them that were in the argos catalogue. i was selling them for 30% more than argos!. bear in mind i was displaying them so they looked wonderfull and not just a picture in a catalogue. and trident just dropped me along with a lot of other (smaller accounts). i do hold a grudge for this. i then drove across town to servlite and are stiil dealing with them to this day. im glad trident dont exisist anymore and i give a damm about anyone who worked for them. they made there decision and they tried to break me.
Published prior to March 2014
By The Irish Travvler
ring lighting was a very successful company up until about 3 years ago .How could this change all of a sudden?There must have been a problem somwere along the line. I herd that the y sold 5,000 pallets of stocka year wether this is true or not i dont no.
Published prior to March 2014
By Dave
Mr Buck,you must have your wires crossed (again) They don't want you back.
Published prior to March 2014
By m buck
im happy i got payed out
then get asked back and know i have my old job back cheers dave
Published prior to March 2014
By Jobless
THE ex ring worker probably is a bit upset about loosing his / her job, and is just venting a bit of anger maybe!!!
Published prior to March 2014
By SOUR GRAPES
I can't understand why an ex-Ring employeee keeps posting on here.You need to get on with your life and eat your sour grapes.
Published prior to March 2014
By Webpolice
Who legged it with all the monitors :)
Published prior to March 2014
By Adam I
Hi folks,

I worked for David @trident for about 11 years - a period long enough to give an accurate representation.

I found David to be genuine and honest and I admire his work ethos and ethics.
As I worked in IT I saw David work round the clock he was logged in on the systems at 2am, 3am, 4am name it!!! he was working. David who was at the time a single parent worked like a machine, a machine which I would have been proud to have programmed. I remember many times including one night, when David contacted the IT team just before midnight stuck in the middle of mountain asking why he couldn't access the network. David policies, and the policies of the directors at Trident were respected by staff hence there was a great family working atmosphere and staff were loyal over many years. When business was good Staff were rewarded and of those that were made redundant were given a golden handshake.

Gutfreund didn't pull down Ring or Trident.

Both Ring and Trident were heading for administration; nobody was going to save them. It could have been NLG, ALG, or even Manchester Uniteds AIG, nothing would have changed the downfall.

In fact Trident would have flopped in 2007 when balance sheets didn't add up, but luckily David's vision within the lighting strategy group aided Trident in taking full advantage of the governments Energy Efficiency programs.

The lighting industry has been hit hard by the recession, this has been pushed by
I) Increase in labour and material costs from the Far East
ii) Customers setting up their own direct sourcing offices.

Unfortunately the lighting industry hasn't been bailed out by the government like the banking, housing and motor industries. On a good note, there are opportunities in the lighting industry as there is a lot of liquidated stock floating around, hence some of the other names who have focused their attentions on direct to consumer business in the lighting industry seem to be surviving.

From a personal viewpoint, I too lost my job - though I kind of saw it coming.

I think we should be thanking David and many other members both at Ring and Trident for working overboard in trying to make the merger successful. At least the staff who worked hard including David and Tony will now be able to sleep tight knowing they tried their best and finally spend some time with their families who have missed out over the last year.

Regardless of what others say

"David used to ride to work on his bike spend a good day at work and then set off to his second home when everybody else was sat at home having tea"

Adam I
Published prior to March 2014
By daz wez
thanks must goto dave,steve,pete and justin for showing me the light
at least iv had 12mnths to start my buiness(www.gdwashaway.co.uk) after i was 1 off a few last yr made redundant from ring (b&q lst 12yrs service).
so the lst may carry on but theres still plenty off dead wood there
Published prior to March 2014
By David Gutfreund
I think I have made my case through my postings that I did my best, always acted with integrity, without self interest, that I genuinely cared for ALG and the people who worked for it. I have always taken my duties as a Director and Employer seriously and people who know me understand this. I also know that when you are the head of an organisation you can come in for some stick from time to time. I bear no one any malice and don't believe there is any reason for anyone to bear me any. Many ex employees of ALG have e-mailed me and told me they do not agree with the sentiment of some of the postings on this site.

Message for Jobless. If you contact me by e-mail I will do what I can to help you. davidgutfreund@gmail.com

I wish everyone who worked for ALG the very best for the future.

I learned alot, enjoyed most of it and am now looking forward to a different future than the one I had planned.

Regards,

David Gutfreund.
Published prior to March 2014
By Confused
Not cynicism, just reality. Don't have "other companies" to fall back on, just the job interview round. So yes, keeping anonymous, along with pretty well everybody else who has made a comment here. Contribution to keeping ALG going? We did our best too.
Published prior to March 2014
By Jobless
Its getting rather personal now, im sure you DID try your best MR Gutfreund
business is very cutthroat and us 'little' people are just pawns in a very big game of chess.
I am sure you will be sleeping better than those are wondering where the next pay packet is coming from to feed his family
Published prior to March 2014
By David Gutfreund
Mr/ Mrs Confused,

You are correct, the last 6 months have not been easy for me. I have focused all my energies on ALG at the detriment to my other companies and my family.

Whilst you choose to hide behind the cloak of anonymity it is difficult to understand your contribution to keeping ALG going.

Perhaps the cynicism contained in your postings tell us more about the type of person you are than cast doubt on my integrity.
Published prior to March 2014
By Confused
You don't make it very easy.
From google, companies at M3 7NG
LSE Retail Group Limited - Annual Return Overdue
Iconic Lights Limited - Proposal to strike off
Tident Commercial lighting Limited - Proposal to strike off
Value Lights Limited - Annual Return Overdue
Published prior to March 2014
By David Gutfreund
Mr/ Mrs Confused. I am happy to answer questions because I have nothing to hide, not even my identity. Part of the rationale for LSE being formed was a hedge against the risk of ALG failing, in that sense you are correct. Another reason is that a retail and a distribution business are different, require different skill sets, have different funding requirements and different valuations on disposal. LSE also has a different ownership with 10% of it being owned by an internet marketing company. There are very few business people I know who only have one company, indeed ALG was made up of 4. It is a matter of public record that I have a number of other companies as well. The transfer pricing for goods and services between LSE and ALG was defined in a contract that was approved by ALG's funders lawyers as being 'arms length' and 'commercial.' LSE has broken even during the last 11 months, proof that no transfer out of assets has occurred. No salaries, income, loans etc have been drawn from LSE until this month where I have drawn 400. Not even min wage for my 75 hour week. Just to reinforce, the notion that I have some how benefited from ALG's administration is false. I have lost the most financially and in terms of reputation. People are forgetting that if I had not bought Ring last year it would have gone into Administration 11 months earlier and I gave it my all to save the company. Let's not all forget we are in the deepest recession for many decades.

My e-mail is davidgutfreund@gmail.com

I understand that it is a difficult and uncertain time for many people and if anyone would like to talk to me directly free.

Best Wishes

David Gutfreund
Published prior to March 2014
By Confused
Credit to Mr Gutfreund for poking his head up above the parapet, but it leaves questions unanswered. LSE was formed before the Ring/Trident merger, and it has mostly the Trident directors on its board. It looks like an insurance policy in case ALG didn't work out, or why not just have an ecommerce ALG arm? Wouldn't it have made more money for ALG if they had sold the stock directly instead of through LSE, who must be taking a fee? I guess the LSE directors are still drawing an LSE salary, Mr Gutfreund included? Not a luxury the ex-ALG staff can enjoy.
Published prior to March 2014
By benjamyn dover
Alas, it apears as though its only a matter of time before the final nail is put in the ring lamp coffin!!!! Word is administrators are looking for a buyer. All I can see is a massive fire-sale. Apparently, we have to be out of the building by September 23rd? I hope all the people responsible are happy. Good luck to all the decent people who have been put on the dole. R.I.P
Published prior to March 2014
By David Gutfreund
I ran ALG for 11 months and I was the architect of the merger of Trident and Ring. I would like to add my own comments to this message board, explain the facts and let people make up thier own minds about the failure of ALG. ALG failed because its funder called in its loan and appointed an administrator. When the loan was called in the business had collateral that would have allowed it to borrow an additional 1.2m. There was nothing cynical, pre-planned or pre-packaged about it. Those people who know me understand that I did everything I could to save the group, preserve people's jobs and look after the creditors. I feel v sad that the group has failed, that good people lost their jobs and the reason I am able to sleep at night is because I know I did my absolute best. The suggestion that I have some how gained financially is wrong. I invested 1.25m of my assets and have turned them into c 10k of statutory redundancy pay. I worked for a salary that was less than half the market rate and rarely claimed my expenses. My salary was the tenth highest in the company, ranking behind other members of the Board and the higher paid sales people. The suggestion that LSE acted or acts in an immoral way is also false. LSE is an internet business that has been going for nearly a year that is fighting to survive. LSE provided a service to ALG by selling its clearance stock at a higher margin than it could get elsewhere and was a net contributor to ALG overheads. The suggestion that LSE benefited from the administration is wrong. During the last 2 weeks I have worked without charge for the administrator continuing to discharge my duty to support the creditors and the remaining people. I have provided references, encouragement and have spoken to many people in the industry and set up numerous interviews for people who have lost their jobs. I understand people being upset, however, do not accept any critisism of a peronal nature from anonymous bloggers.

My email address is davidgutfreund@gmail.com

Feel free to write to me.

Best wishes,

David Gutfreund
Published prior to March 2014
By funny business
lse on ebay having a bit of a bad run, seems they are moving stock to a different warehouse again, where this time? hope its not trident again, if it rains it will all get wet
Published prior to March 2014
By Jobless
there isnt only the "LST" to think about!!! what about all the poor souls who are clearing out the place, they will be the ones who will be there till the bitter end.
Published prior to March 2014
By RingIam
With reference to Suppliers message..who got the Bonus i can tell you now the employees at Ring worked for 3 years with no payrise and more work due to cut backs on staff..they worked hard to save the company..they 2 as with Trident staff are all now without Jobs never mind a Bonus.
Published prior to March 2014
By your majesty
If B&Q do take on the LST lads it is to be hoped that the staff retained will all club together and remove the dead wood.
good luck lads
Published prior to March 2014
By A Supplier
No the suppliers did not get paid, they took us for thousands to help get there bonuses.
hope they can sleep well with my money in the bank.
Published prior to March 2014
By shafted
does anyone know how to get hold of the directors and where abouts they are now?????
Published prior to March 2014
By TIN!!!!! TIN!!!!
C,MON SOMEONE NEEDS TO SAVE THE LIGHT SUPPORT TEAM,THEY PROVIDE AN EXCELLENT SERVICE WITHIN THE B&Q GROUP.THIS TEAM IS VITAL IN THE B&Q LIGHTING DEPARTMENTS.....!!!!!!!your country needs you!!!!!!!joe lay of the burgers....
Published prior to March 2014
By Confused
War of the rose's link says LSE set up in August 2009, so it is about a year old.

But in that case, how come ALG has been picking LSE's stock all this time, and how come it continues to do so when it's in administration?

And how did Trident stock end up with LSE and not go into ALG's assets?
Published prior to March 2014
By war of the roses
Thanks a lot, I hope you are ashamed of yourselves. The Friday before the admin were called in very nice.

I hope all ring n trident people see this !

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/lse-retail-group

sent via i-phone

Published prior to March 2014
By funny business
put 320578696660 into ebay search and you get Modern Chrome 8 Way Sputnik Ceiling Light at sellers details LSE Retail Group Limited
Customer Service
95 Greengate
Salford
Greater Manchester
M37NG
tridents old address but isn't all the stock supposed to be in leeds?
Published prior to March 2014
By JOBLESS
APPARENTLY THE LSE IS GETTING PICKED BY THE BLOKES WHO WORK AT THE LEEDS SITE, DONT KNOW IF THIS IS A RUMOUR OR CORRECT!!!!
Published prior to March 2014
By Anonymous
If funny business's comment is correct and LSE are still trading after shufling the stock and figures around, I hope a certain someone has trouble sleeping at night. Good Luck for the future to all ex ALG employees (whichever side of the pennines you call home), I'm sure you will be a credit to your new employers (as you were at ALG)

By the way have the Hamburgers stopped laughing yet !

Always look on the brightside of life.....
Published prior to March 2014
By funny business
quick bit of googling shows LSE retail selling on ebay from the trident address. who's picking that stock? google also shows LSE not in the administrator list so has somebody been clever moving stock about?
Published prior to March 2014
By By Anonymous
The Directors didnt have the vision to see what was going on within the company for the past 3 years and didnt have the balls to do what was right then.They turned a blind eye and didnt recognize the obvious.STRANGE HOW THE STAFF ALL KNEW IN THE OFFICE! You can never run a company with no direction and total lack of vision. Maybe they should have gone to specsavers.
Published prior to March 2014
By Know It All
Right, here are the facts for anyone who cares about such things; Ring and Trident would have both closed in late 2009 without merging - the US company that owned Ring had drained it of all its profits. There was a serious attempt made to turn it into a solid business but it was naive to hope that both sites could be kept open. The directors who left were asked to leave. They were both great companies to work for in their heyday. Best of luck to everyone now - onwards and upwards eh?
Published prior to March 2014
By wozza1970
I hope all the guys who have the contract of looking after B&Q's lighting dept' get taken on by another lighting supplier or even B&Q.I us to work for them myself a few years back and they do a sterling job with not much in the way of thanks(from Ring or B&Q)
Published prior to March 2014
By anonymous
we worked hard at ring, only to find we were picking orders for LSE Retail Group , which Gutfreund owned and this milked all the profits in to a side company. Was this all planned?
Published prior to March 2014
By Split ring
Feel a bit sorry for Henry Bisson a few comments back. It's not this forum he has to convince, it's the wider public. The Ring brand is now badly damaged, and it will affect the entirely separate automotive bit. The FT has the ALG business up for sale and puts Ring in as a brand asset, no differentiation there. It's the risk he took when Ring was split and the brand went off in 2 directions.
Published prior to March 2014
By What were they thinking of?
Trident had been shedding staff including by compulsory redundancy for almost 2 years before the merger, and was on a declining profits trend, tipping into loss. Who did the financial due diligence as late as September 2009 and thought that linking two overlapping struggling businesses on two separate sites was ever going to work? Why did Trident want to attach to it a 7 million loss! By July 2010, directors are resigning, so the problems must have been pretty obvious by March at the latest, maybe 6 months after this ridiculous triumph of ambition over ability.
Published prior to March 2014
By last 1 out turn the light off
before they went with trident they made cut backs.
but still they couldnt last more than 12months
they made money over the yrs but never passed this on to the staff no payrises in yrs.but more work load the staff worked hard and for what sweet fa
so who has been creaming the money?
directores leave (no sorry they leave a sinking ship) and leave the workforce with what once again is sweet fa and no job.thanks ring (rip) no sorry goto hell
i bet the directores got a nice hand shake.
Published prior to March 2014
By Henry Bisson
To avoid confusion, we would like to inform you that we have no financial,legal or shareholder connection with the Associated Lighting Company (ALG) or any of its subsidiary companies containing the name Ring that went into Administration on Monday the 9th of August.

The Volvox Group Ltd and its subsidiary company Ring Automotive are not affected and continue to trade as normal.

Kind Regards

Henry Bisson
Marketing Communications Executive
Ring Automotive
Published prior to March 2014
By Anonymous
A great shame it has had to end this way, had many good and a few not so good at Ring, but it was always a good solid company to work for. Shame the directors could not work as hard as the staff!
Published prior to March 2014
By Supplier
Did the suppliers all been paid?
Published prior to March 2014
By A. Nonymous
Years of being "cash rich", then betting it all on a cart horse !
Published prior to March 2014
By basil rathbone
It is a sad day for ring, I worked there for sometime, they were always a very fair company and loyal to their staff. I cant believe they have slipped from the premier division in such a short time. good luck to everyone at ring. my thoughts are with you all.
Published prior to March 2014
By Anonymous
well have we all been paid?
Published prior to March 2014
By Anonymous
Going in with Trident was meant to save Rings future. So sad for all their hardworking staff that it has come to this.
Published prior to March 2014
By The Oracle
The truth of it is that if Trident hadn't acquired Ring, Ring would have gone under late '09 with Trident following early '10. The Directors didn't jump, but were pushed - due to adding zero value, and in fact being incompetent in some areas. They did well out of the settlement, as they had done for many years previously. I feel for the men\women on the ground who have lost their jobs in both Ring & Trident through no fault of their own.
Published prior to March 2014
By Anonymous
I don't think it was a case of jumping ship...more a case of being pointedly shown which way to the plank!
Published prior to March 2014
By Dave
I think it's more likely the Customers causing this again - Retailers are squeezing the life out of suppliers with copy's and FOB .
Shame the article cannot get the Surnames right
Directors jumping before the ship went down then!
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