Family firm saves JDY
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• A 60-year-old family firm has bought John Dee Yorkshire from the receiver in a last-minute deal, saving 60 jobs and picking up £.2m worth of prime distribution contracts including one with brewing giant Tetley.
Turners (Soham) of Fordham, Cambridgeshire moved in when receiver Cork Gully decided to shut down JDY, after a management buyout bid failed for lack of cash. The company has taken over JDY's Rothwell, Leeds depot, and is buying 30 John Dee vehicles which it will spend £50,000 on re-liverying. "John Dee has left a lot of people with serious financial problems and we don't want to be associated with it," says Turners director Paul Day.
A fleet of 40 Turners lorries will operate from Rothwell, servicing contracts for Tetley, Next Dimension, Ram Kitchens and Premium Timber.
Turners runs more than 250 vehicles in the UK. It has depots at Norwich, Felixstowe, Hitchin and Northfleet, and hopes to use the Leeds operation to develop business in Yorkshire.
"We see it as an expanding area," says Day, "but our strategy is one of prudent growth — companies like John Dee who have gone for rapid expansion have not done very well."
Turners, which expects to turn over up to £17m in 1991, describes itself as a "solid transport company" whose major customers include the likes of Blue Circle, Sainsbury, British Sugar and HM Prisons.
Day admits Turners is "a dark horse buyer — we were interested from the beginning and at the eleventh hour had further discussions with the receiver and customers. We paid a market price, but of course the market is depressed at the moment."
Creditors of JDY met in Leeds on 2 April and heard that the company traded profitably while in receivership, although a deficiency of £2.3m remains, making it unlikely that more than 200 unsecured creditors — including hauliers — will be paid (CM 4-10 April).