B&P slams subbies as it cuts Courage
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by Karen Miles • Sub-contractors working for Beck and Pollitzer on its contract with Courage are celebrating B&P's decision to pull out of part of the controversial £9m-a-year beer delivery operation. But Transport Development Group subsidiary B&P has criticised the "whispering campaign" conducted against it since it took over the management of sub-contractors working out of the Reading brewery last summer.
Sub-contractors have dismissed B&P's comments, arguing that their tactics were justified because of B&P's alleged cutting of rates by up to 30%.
B&P has denied that it cut rates and, amid the accusations and counter-accusa tions, the Road Haulage Association has refused to get involved: director-general Bryan Colley says the RHA does not comment on commercial or ethical matters involving contracts.
The decision to drop the Reading management contract from I May ends almost a year of acrimony. Even before B&P began at Courage the announcement of the UK's largest logistics contract was delayed because of difficulties with sub-contractors. B&P European development director Ken Roberts says: "A whispering campaign wasn't the right way to register complaints. They should have confronted the issue properly. Sub-contractors need to understand what's happening in the market place. No-one is trying to take their market away from them, but customers are increasingly wanting to work directly with the major logistics companies."
The sub-contractors remain defiant and delighted. One says: "I'm chuffed to bits that we'll be working directly for Courage again and hopefully the rates will go up...all of us have tried to get together and cause as much trouble as we can—after all we've only been sticking up for our rights."
The change will leave B&P to concentrate on the £8m-a-year Daventry Courage contract.