ANC in court battle
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• Parcels company ANC Holdings is involved in a legal battle with three of its franchisees after attempting to take over their depots in January for alleged breaches of contract (CM 24-30 January).
The three franchisees, who control depots at Warrington, Abergele, Leicester, Norwich and Huntingdon, have won a High Court injunction against ANC which forces the company to continue to use their services. The injunction is valid until tomorrow (1 February) when a High Court hearing will start to decide whether or not ANC can legally terminate the three contracts.
As far as ANC Holdings is concerned, the franchises have been terminated, says marketing director John Gardner.
Commercial Motor contacted some ANC franchisees but they were reluctant to talk about the legal wrangle.
Business appears to be continuing at the affected depots.
ANC Holdings says it attempted to take direct control of the depots because of alleged non-payment of bills.
The affected franchisees are believed to be putting together a management buyout, along with other ANC franchise holders. Gardner refutes rumours of a buyout — he says ANC Holdings has never received a management buyout proposal.
The legal wrangle follows ANC's attempts last autumn to find up to 15 new franchisees for areas where franchisees had gone into liquidation or had failed to meet standards, according to ANC.
However, it later decided to retain 10 of the 15 as wholly owned depots.