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Granny Danger

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15 minutes ago, strichener said:

Are you suggesting that the company or owners did something wrong?

I don't think this is the same as other cases where companies suddenly appeared to supply PPE. They were an established company, and they seem to have supplied what was ordered, in time and to specifications. The fact too much was ordered and not used isn't their fault. There will be questions about the cost of the stuff and the profits made but that's the nature of a capitalist system. So yes there might be valid criticism of profits, but the fact so much PPE is being destroyed or recycled is down to the govt. 

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Yeah this is probably the "least worst" example of wastage. I know it's easy to say as a lilly livered bleeding heart leftie, but surely these companies could have supplied equipment at, if not cost price, then with marginal profit? I wouldn't begrudge a company supplying stuff a profit and I'd hope the goodwill would extend to further contracts down the line, but making so much is what galls. Also doesn't help that some companies who do or did supply things like PPE were ignored and instead friends and donors won contracts via the VIP Lane, but that's a different argument altogether imo.

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3 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Legally?  It doesn’t look like it; the article is at pains to point this out.  Of course sometimes the laws are not suited to black swan events like public procurement during an extreme and unexpected global pandemic.

Morally?  Yes, anyone making excess profits off the back of the Covid should be judged harshly.  The fact they moved the business registration offshore suggests excess profits.

I would suggest they are greedy, grubby profiteers.  Maybe you disagree.

PS you’ve still not said who you’re voting for.

 

As someone that owns (or owned a business), how many times did you go back to an existing customer and tell them that they were ordering too much and that you wouldn't supply them?  As others have said, this is the poorest example of the procurement process' unjustified enrichment of corporates/individuals during the pandemic and nothing like those that supplied shoddy shite that wasn't up to the job.  It is noted that the company continues to pay all their taxes in the UK which again is far more than many others did.

 

Bold part - Yes, I have in response to the post the first time you asked me.

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25 minutes ago, strichener said:

As someone that owns (or owned a business), how many times did you go back to an existing customer and tell them that they were ordering too much and that you wouldn't supply them?  As others have said, this is the poorest example of the procurement process' unjustified enrichment of corporates/individuals during the pandemic and nothing like those that supplied shoddy shite that wasn't up to the job.  It is noted that the company continues to pay all their taxes in the UK which again is far more than many others did.

 

Bold part - Yes, I have in response to the post the first time you asked me.

 

The accounts available for the company at Companies House are filed as small company accounts. I found this definition of a small company

Quote

For accounting purposes Companies House defines a small business as employing less than 50 people and a turnover under £6.5 million

In the report it mentions that previously profits were £800K, which would have been on a maximum turnover of £6.5 million. The contract for the PPE was £1.78 billion, roughly 270 times the normal maximum turnover. That means a pro rata profit of about £219 million if margins were still the same. (I’m not an accountant so feel free to tell me if that logic is crap)

Even if they did cut their normal margins, on that size of contract the absolute profit is still going to be enormous. So possibly they weren’t ripping off people like others were, but maybe it looks that way because of the arguably stupid size of the contract awarded to a small company.

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54 minutes ago, strichener said:

As someone that owns (or owned a business), how many times did you go back to an existing customer and tell them that they were ordering too much and that you wouldn't supply them?  As others have said, this is the poorest example of the procurement process' unjustified enrichment of corporates/individuals during the pandemic and nothing like those that supplied shoddy shite that wasn't up to the job.  It is noted that the company continues to pay all their taxes in the UK which again is far more than many others did.

 

Bold part - Yes, I have in response to the post the first time you asked me.

^^^ defender of blatant profiteering.

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5 hours ago, MazzyStar said:

RIP Julian Assange for when the spooks get him. Thank you for putting the lives of US military personnel at risk. 

He's gone back to Australia. Which is quite well known for poisonous wildlife. Now, call me Vlad Putin, but I reckon a funnelweb spider under the bog seat should do it 

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On 25/06/2024 at 11:27, Granny Danger said:

£1.4 billion of PPE destroyed.  This is from a single who got rich and has subsequently moved their business offshore for ‘privacy’ reasons so no-one can see how much money they made.  Prior to COVID they made an annual profit of £800k; you can bet that they made a wee bit more on this deal.

Not nearly enough has been down to expose the level of this scandal and/or to hold people accountable.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cll476qzm85o

I don't understand why they had to destroy the equipment. It's not as if it had a use by date or anything. 

Fair enough, write off the money as a total waste if you like but couldn't the PPE be given free to places with deadly diseases such as Ebola, Dengue, Malaria etc. as it may just have been of some use. 

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Just now, tamthebam said:

I don't understand why they had to destroy the equipment. It's not as if it had a use by date or anything. 

Fair enough, write off the money as a total waste if you like but couldn't the PPE be given free to places with deadly diseases such as Ebola, Dengue, Malaria etc. as it may just have been of some use. 

They’ve probably kept it to sell on at a 100% mark up when bird flu hits.

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9 minutes ago, tamthebam said:

I don't understand why they had to destroy the equipment. It's not as if it had a use by date or anything. 

Fair enough, write off the money as a total waste if you like but couldn't the PPE be given free to places with deadly diseases such as Ebola, Dengue, Malaria etc. as it may just have been of some use. 

A lot of PPE does have an expiry date. 

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1 minute ago, MazzyStar said:

A lot of PPE does have an expiry date. 

It must be made of yon plastic that doesn't hang about in the environment for decades. Good. 

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9 hours ago, tamthebam said:

He's gone back to Australia. Which is quite well known for poisonous wildlife. Now, call me Vlad Putin, but I reckon a funnelweb spider under the bog seat should do it 

Now you've done it. Cue tinfoil hat brigade claiming that the CIA have an entire division training arachnids to assassinate those who p!ss off the Good Ole USofA.

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12 hours ago, tamthebam said:

He's gone back to Australia. Which is quite well known for poisonous wildlife. Now, call me Vlad Putin, but I reckon a funnelweb spider under the bog seat should do it 

It’s redback spiders that hang about in the dunny. Funnel web spiders more devious making burrows in the ground or hide in rockery with some absolute c***s living in trees.

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20 hours ago, tamthebam said:

I don't understand why they had to destroy the equipment. It's not as if it had a use by date or anything. 

Fair enough, write off the money as a total waste if you like but couldn't the PPE be given free to places with deadly diseases such as Ebola, Dengue, Malaria etc. as it may just have been of some use. 

 

20 hours ago, Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo said:

They’ve probably kept it to sell on at a 100% mark up when bird flu hits.

 

20 hours ago, tamthebam said:

It must be made of yon plastic that doesn't hang about in the environment for decades. Good. 

Here’s the answer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cl55lp79dzno

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