There has been one topic that arguably has dominated the dealer discourse recently and that’s the demise of F.R. Jones - and the subsequent fall-out.
By now many industry members will have had their say in various online forums and conclusions will have been reached regarding who was principally at fault - and where does the industry go from here? As we’ve said before it doesn’t seem like an overstatement to conclude that feelings are running high. I have certainly picked up on plenty of anger and resentment emanating from the dealer community – towards both F.R. Jones themselves and certain manufacturers who supplied them.
Something seems fundamentally wrong when a dealer is phoning me this week, saying that in the lead up to the company going bust, they were able to buy machinery from F.R. Jones’ website, cheaper than what their actual supplying manufacturers could provide them with. I’m not sure how anyone could justify that as making any sense at all?
This dealer told me they bought machinery in good faith from Jones, only for that equipment never to arrive. As their suspicions grew, they told me they phoned the manufacturer directly to find out if there were issues with supplies or indeed greater problems with F.R. Jones - to be told nothing was wrong, and their purchases would be forthcoming.
As we now know, something was indeed seriously wrong and nothing was supplied - meaning this dealer was left out of pocket, along with whoever else made purchases during that period.
Questions are now naturally being asked about when did F.R. Jones and their suppliers know that they were going out of business?
The dealer I spoke to was undoubtedly angry – and frankly with good reason. Their argument was why should these rouge traders be able to degrade the network for the rest of the hardworking, ethical dealers across the country? Also, why were their supplying manufacturers allowing them – and of course other traders like them - to continue in such a fashion?
It is, most certainly, an unedifying situation for the industry to be mired in. Justin Jones is telling us he’s faced threats and online attacks, whilst other dealers are telling us they feel duped and the business practices that F.R. Jones specialised in has contributed to a ‘race to the bottom’ culture amongst some online retailers.
Hopefully this whole sorry mess will indeed act as a ‘wake-up call’ and lead to real change. I know many readers will be cynical that such a change is possible whist bandits are making a living with their rock-bottom discounting. We had comments under published articles last week to this effect in fact.
However, as there is now tangible evidence that the ‘pile it high, offload it cheap’ practice can lead to spectacular failure - no matter the size of the retailer - might change be forthcoming?
The F.R. Jones saga can now be classed as a case study that the industry can reference. Surely it would be prudent for all to do so?
