Caricold insists it's not a phoenix of Chillspeed
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• by Dominic Perry Caricold Logistics, the company that rose from the ashes of temperature controlled haulage specialists R&M Chillspeed, is denying any connection between the two despite trading the day after Chillspeed folded using the same drivers, trucks, subcontractors and clients.
One ex-subcontractor claims that former Chilispeed director Ronnie MacKenzie will be working two to three days a week at Caricold 'in an advisory capacity". This is also denied by MacKenzie and the director of Caricold, Pat Clinton, who is Chillspeed's for mer transport manager.
Further confusion surrounds the firm's Operator's Licence. Clinton claims the firm has applied for one but the Scottish traffic area office says it has no record of any application.
Clinton says he knew that Chillspeed had problems a month before its collapse and took the gamble of starting out on his own: "I decided to move into the business myself on a smaller scale than Chillspeed. I approached the main customers and they were quite prepared to give me a chance at it," he says. Caricold set up in a portable building across the road from Chillspeed's offices in a yard belonging to major client Frigecosse: Clinton says there was a lot of "to-ing and fro-ing" between the offices to begin with. This, he says, explains why
Chillspeed's phone was answered "Caricold" when a CM reporter called before Christmas.
Robert Campbell and Malcolm Jamieson are also former Chillspeed directors who helped start the firm. They are now subcontractors and stress they have nothing to do with the new company and knew nothing about Chillspeed's troubles.
Subcontractors previously employed by Chillspeed, including Campbell and Jamieson, are struggling to makes ends meet as they deal with enormous debts, in some cases as large as £100,000.
Jamieson says: "I'm having to sell virtually everything I own in order to recover, I don't see any way, shape or form of getting my money back, although I'm probably one of the lucky ones. It's rather dispiriting to build up something for eight years and then be treated just like another subcontractor at the end of it."
Glasgow chartered accountant Kroll Buehler Phillips has been appointed as the provisional liquidator for Chillspeed.