Solus please just get it sorted soon. Friends stick together in times of trouble. In our business we need Solus and on time deliveries. We don't find other suppliers work as well for us and we buy all the Solus brands. Good luck. We are looking out for some good news soon.

I have been in this industry all my working life. The various retailers I have worked for have all been supplied by Solus and before that Gibbs Palmer. It's very sad to see this happening to a company that has served this industry superbly well for so many years. It is even sadder to see their trouble played out in public. None of us can really know what has happened within this company and I am a great believer that their are 2 sides to every story. I for one will be giving Solus space to get back on track, which I sincerely hope they do. Our industry will be a lesser place for us all if Solus doesn't get through this.

With ref to your comments - it is clear who you are !!! - all this washing the Solus dirty linen in public is getting boring.I am surprised you haven't outsourced your comments you have put on here !!! If everybody in the trade wants to get a true reason why Solus are where they are at present you are one of the main reasons why. If anybody was to ask any Solus employee past or present what has gone wrong at Solus your name would be very close to the top of the list. The timescale for this business going down the pan speaks for itself - 2 years !!! There have been big mistakes made at the top. To listening to the wrong people who had ulterior motives, to then trying to sell product online which upset many retailers, to then employing people from outside the trade, who were that arrogant they thought they didn't need to talk with experienced Sales staff. To then letting a certain person run riot with the Solus purse strings and spend money as if it was going out of fashion. To allowing them to employ ex work colleagues, family and family friends. All of them from outside the trade, again at a extortionate cost. To totally change a trade show that was well recognised in the trade that was successful to then claim that their brand event was a success when it generated half the income and cost a lot more than previous trade shows - how is that successful ? To take on staff to give Solus a social media presence !!! Do you not know the average age of a garden centre customer ? Most of who wouldn't know what Facebook was or would ever use it. Created a range of products which have been shunned by the trade and still proclaims that it's a success. To cause the departure of the majority of all the Solus Sales Force because they thought they knew best. Some of these Sales people who had been in the trade over 25 years. Did you realise Solus's Sales Force was once the envy of the Gardening Trade. In your eyes they were incompetent. Surprisingly the majority of them were head hunted by opposition and are now successful. They must of being doing something right. So whilst we are commenting on doing things right. Was you doing things right at your last company ? Was you not required at your last company when they realised what you were about ?
At the end of the day Solus employees past and present and the whole of the garden trade wants Solus to survive. With luck this will happen and save genuine people their jobs, but my friend, please note, you are not required in this trade, never have been and never will. As mentioned above for everybody who reads this, this is a true reflection of what has happened at Solus and as mentioned would be confirmed by the majority of Solus past and present staff and also people out in the trade . Long live Solus !!!

Again WFSborder doesnt get a mention as a Scotts stockist !!!!!!!!!

There is nothing innovative about Solus once a traditional wholesaler who had an inside track on branded innovative product margins and pricing via their wholesaling activities. They simply took it to China changed it a bit and re branded it. They are not specialists in any product ranges just a marketing and distribution company. They have taken many manufacturers innovative ideas, trashed the price and quality. We need a honest truly independent distribution company who can represent the independent manufacturers product ranges fairly. sales reps in Solus only ever went out to sell their own range while the independents paid for the Solus catalogue through inflated charges as we did with trade shows.

Seriously there are no 'real' alternative
'garden' wholesalers - Decco (in Devon) lost the gardening 'plot' some years ago - visit their Trade Show and you will find few 'gardening' stands - now mainly hardwares like Stax who are a glorified cash & carry. It is all very worrying for us smaller independents who rely on Solus to supply the bulk of our 'shop' items. At the moment we can still find alternative products to sell our customers (often a lot cheaper that the Bayers & Scotts of this world) - lets hope Solus can turn things around and so prove we can live wlthout the so-called 'brand' leaders.

Solus are only interested in large accounts. We used to get leisure on one truck, then 5 mins later garden products!! We left them some years ago. Reps not interested at all.

Geoff, whilst we all agree that the industry requires a strong Solus and wholesale base, I believe it had been widely published that Solus pulled out of the deal and not Scott's. Yes Scott's would have been interested in the purchase but possibly to protect their exposure within a failing business.

Solus were a brilliant business, were being the word, unfortunately things have changed and unlikely to return. The news from Bayer further emphasises this.

I strongly agree with the other 2 comments. I'm sure like the majority of Garden Centres UK wide, we are all in support of you and despite all that's went on, Solus are by far the best distributor with some excellent own brands as well. We all hope for some positive news by the end of the week. You can do it ! Forget the other comments on the last page - totally uncalled for ! The main people who you need support from is ourselves ( your CUSTOMER base ) and you certainly have mine and I'm sure many others.

I'm sure like other Garden centre owners, we hope you manage to get a sufficient solution sorted soon. There's allot of good people in that business and you are so important to our trade ! We are behind you and let's hope for a good responsible buyer/partner who will take Solus back in to the good times, keeping up the innovation and excellent service.