Bowrings/Bombay/Benix - Bankruptcy

AccountsReceivable@DRC

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Bankruptcy with Bowrings/Benix/Bombay.

Creditor list is large with quite a few transport companies taking hits...some small...some large.

Largest - CCT Logistics...to the tune of $480K+

I'm amazed at how an account can get this high...I'm sure the "flags" were waving high and red early on....

It's too bad....bankruptcies of this magnitude effect everyone - either indirectly or directly - somewhere down the chain...
 
It looks like maybe they were doing the distribution and maybe have stock in their warehouse to cover some of this or they had an agreement knowing they were in trouble and they will get paid because they had to get the product to store..............just spitballing here no actual knowledge.
 
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No idea lowmiler88....

It's not good either way you look at it. When big money is involved - those larger companies can take the hit - but their payments slow right down. And for the smaller businesses...well...some of these dollar amounts are enough to close their doors for good. And that's a shame. People work hard - especially in small business. Employees and owners wear so many hats to keep the company going and family/friends getting a paycheque.

In this industry especially - you really take a chance with who you deal with. From a business model - you look at a larger shipper and see only the "potential sales" with taking them on...not shifting gears some time down the road and changing perspectives to "potential losses" if they keep working with them...even thru the hard times....when they aren't paying their bills. What do you do at that point? Keep taking full loads knowing you'll "eventually" see your money?

It's a roll of the dice sometimes whether you'll be paid or not in these "keep holding on" scenarios. Big business...is not always good business. We all know that....
 
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I agree everyone needs to know what they can afford to lose because it will happen to even the best of us at some point. I remember about 14 years ago we got burned for 60K on a bankruptcy protection from a company that was current with payments and if we just did trucking it could have been a killer at the time. The thing that bothers me the most is the company that burned us is still operating to this day. If you saw the Target papers it would scare the you know what out of you to see what some carriers lost.
 
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If you get a really big client, maybe consider investing a few dollars with a large global to national Risk Management / Security / Corporate Intelligence firm, you would be surprised what information if available to properly trained corporate intelligence gathering individuals.

I'd rather invest 10k in intel to find out the nuts and bolts of a client shipping 100k a month, and not know anything..

below are some very reputable firms who gather intel and risk and report for a fee... and no its not a small fee either...

http://www.kroll.com/
http://www.ibiscorp.com/
http://www.corpis.org/corpis-home
http://www.grantthornton.ca/services/forensic_investigations/corporate_intelligence
http://www.hill-assoc.com
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...rsus-competitive-intelligence/article4933482/
http://360rmg.com/

In my experience, as long as your willing to pay for data, thus everything is obtainable, and their is no reason a company should be caught off caught by a significant client who enters financial protection.
 
The family that owns Bowrings and that group of companies (the Benitah family) has been struggling with this for a while. They actually went into protection once before, maybe 5 years ago and then emerged.

And yes, I believe CCT actually operates the distribution warehouse for the group. Between the actual warehousing and LTL distribution that came along with it, I'd be surprised if the amounts owed to them were even 60 days of sales.