MP demands inquiry into Time Computers collapse

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A Lancashire Conservative MP has called for a Government inquiry into the collapse of Granville Technology Group, the owners of Time and Tiny Computers.

Nigel Evans, MP for the Ribble Valley, urged the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to "carry out a full investigation into the reason behind the collapse" according to The Clitheroe Advertiser.

"I want the DTI to investigate why it is that the company had not issued any figures since June 2003," said Evans. "The company had made a profit of £2.5m and a turnover of £207m."

Evans also hit out at the secrecy that has surrounded the owners of Granville Technology and its complex web of related companies.

"I want to know which members of the board knew that the company was in dire straits and when they knew it," said Evans. This will be a key issue for any inquiry, should one be called, given the evidence from staff that the company was taking orders right up until the administrators arrived, when there was insufficient stock on hand to fulfil them.

Evans joins a growing list of those who have called for an inquiry, including the GMB union and the former employees of Time/Tiny computers who have set up a petition. The DTI has yet to launch an inquiry.

Talkback

Petition has been set up here http://www.petitiononline.com/Time/petition.html

via Facebook 4 August, 2005 14:38
Reply

There is a real robbery going on Granville/Time Computers. And it has been planned for some time already. I can prove it.

They suddenly shut the doors to all their shops and to the factory in Burnley, putting 1500 employees on the street. Losses are expected to top 50 mill pounds!

They don't even go through chapter 11 procedure, just liquidiate the company (companies).

Suppliers has lost mountains of money. I know a few of them have been losing more than 5 Million each! AMD, MSI, Foxconn, Albatron, TUL, Sony, HP and so on.

End users have ordered from Time and prepaid more than 5000 pcs notebooks and TFT monitors. Everything is lost. They don't get their money back.!!

Then, in my opinion the worst part:
In France the founder of Time (Tahid Moshan) has another company called Granville France, who has a lot of orders from big customers for the 'back to school'. Now there are strong rumours that he will arrange so that these orders can still be delivered from Time UK, from the stock of the bancrupt company!

Then I am asking myself, how is it legally possible that they can use goods which is not paid to suppliers and produce and deliver to the owners company in another country?

Mr. Tahid Moshan also have built himself a big new assembly factory in Dubai with a capasity of 1 million PC systems per year. The timing of this seems suspicious. Because the new factory was ready to start production at the same time as Time UK was closed.........

As I said, this is robbery in open daylight, and nobody react!? How is it possible that the UK government can let this happen? Even the newspapers are pretty silent about the matter, why?

Boso Wang

via Facebook 12 August, 2005 11:28
Reply

Maybe, the income from the UK was used to build the Dubai factory??? The DTI & the Serious Fraud Squad should go to Dubai and continue investigations their. Middle Eastern countries do not look lightly upon thieves and fraudsters, maybe they could bring a prosecution and deal a sentence more deserving to the crimes committed. The loss of a hand or two always makes a thief think twice before committing any crime ever again..

via Facebook 24 August, 2005 12:24
Reply

The Time chain bought Tiny computers after they had problems. Is it another case where expansion/"dominance" fails. I found that the time/tiny shops were high pressure sale outlets seemingly out to sell overpriced products and their extended guarantees were expensive. The Computer Shop chain had loads of bargins but beware if something went wrong after 30 days. The shops were not interested - go to the manufacturer and hope for the best, of course we all know it's the retailer's problem. I wrote to trading standards people about this and they did not show interest all. I hope whoever takes on the name of Time etc. will have a different attitude to their customers.

via Facebook 17 September, 2005 09:29
Reply

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