What happened to the Myford sale thread?

[adyParticipant @ady]

So who is in charge of the sale?

[RobboParticipant @robbo]

Selling the stores and parts in one lot is bad news, we can imagine the future, can’t say more or David will delete it on legal grounds, but we all know the score.

 

Let’s give a thought to our friends at Myford, that we’ve met and joked with at Open Days, Linda the purveyor of emails, Alex and John in the stores, ian, and the others.

 

What will happen to the Myford archive, that record of every lathe made and where it went? It would be a shame to lose that. Have to be patient I suppose, and see what arises from the ashes.

 

Phil

 

[TrevorKParticipant @trevork]

I have just spoken to a very helpful lady at RDG who confirmed their company has purchased the contents of the stores and are right now in process of packing it for relocation to W Yorks from where they intend selling the original true Myford parts through a separate website. I didn’t get any timescale for when this business will be up and running.

 

 

[LordedmondParticipant @lordedmond]

^ If myford do in fact cease ( heaven forbid ) then it should be sent to

 

 

http://www.lathes.co.uk/

 

as the hold the lathe reference

 

but the trouble will be knowing myford it will be on a card index or ledger, I know for a fact they when they made my present lathe the order was up on a card index type system not on a computer

 

 

Stuart

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LordedmondParticipant @lordedmond]

David please do not remove this as I confirmed this with RDG by phone I did ask them if could post the info and they said yes

This is getting interesting I have just got off the phone from RDG and I have been told ( and I have been given permission to Quote ) that they have the spares and the myford name and will be opening a web site in a few weeks to sell the spares under the myford name

 

 

 

Stuart ,

 

 

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

Lots of secondhand accessories and also machines on sale over the weekend.

Confirmed with Chris Moore 10.30 on Friday morning.

regards David

 

[LordedmondParticipant @lordedmond]

David

 

So no spares then only secondhand acc. and machines at the week end

 

I do think if thats the case ( as it looks putting the pieces of the complex jigsaw together ) then Myford should reword their web page else their will be some very unhappy punters at the weekend

 

 

Stuart

[NilochParticipant @niloch]

I share Robbo’s concern about the archive. I may have been one of the last to have his lathe bed re-ground by Myford (tax point on invoice 09/06/11). When I was collecting the bed from the building across the road from reception I asked when the lathe was manufactured, an employee noted the serial number and disappeared up into a mezzanine office, brought back down a ledger and told me that it had been built in 1959 and initially had gone into the demonstration area.

I had planned to make a three hundred mile round trip for the sale on Saturday, but I’m not in a position to spend £50 on fuel only to be met by empty shelves. Unless the situation is clarified I suspect there will be very few customers there even for the few new and re-built lathes. The lack of definitive information is counter-productive for all.

Edited By Niloch on 15/07/2011 12:00:18

[9fingersParticipant @9fingers]

Stuart,

That particular webpage will almost certainly be controlled by the administrators whose sole responsibility will be to raise as much cash for the creditors as possible and little else.

Bob

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

I am assured the archive is safe.

It will not be dumped or burnt.

regards David

 

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

I have just got back from Myfords, spoke to Chris Moore and RDG who are there in force clearing out.

 

Bottom line is that RDG have bought all the spares and anything other than machines that is not bolted down, this includes the contents of the fitting shop, inspection and other departments. They have also bought all the jigs and fixtures.

 

They have also purchased the drawings and intellectual rights of the company.

 

They have bought / rented another 3,000 sq ft warehouse to put all this in and will be running this as a separate company. They will still sell the Indian imports but as imports and run a two tiered system to supply all needs. This direct face to face from RDG this morning.

 

What is on sale to the public are all the Myford lathes, millers and a few drilling machines plus the contents of the shop and secondhand accessories, vises, boxes of cutters odd collets etc.

 

The items are all priced up as of 12:30 today but not the machines but I was told these will be priced up by tomorrow.

 

The bits and pieces are reasonable £30 for a 6″ vise, used and not pristine, indexers from £30, various chucks etc.

 

On the machines there are quite few new lathes and some early ML7’s and S7’s that are untouched as bought in for refurb.

 

Only pricing I saw was for a couple of ML10’s at £2,322 and £2,554 each and a VMA attachment for a series 7 at £2,000

 

Two shots of the machines for sale.

 

 

 

 

Two shots of what is on offer to the public.

 

 

 

I was told by the asset sales guy that machines will be sold at market value as there are the last to be produced and sold, there will be no more, his words, not mine.

 

There are some machines included in the plant like modified Myfords and couple of tatty 254’s and one Mini-Kop and a couple of Mg12 grinders. You will have to see one of the asset guys over these to get a price.

 

All the good plant has already been sold. [ Hence my trip today <g> ]

 

John S.

Edited By John Stevenson on 15/07/2011 13:55:51

[LordedmondParticipant @lordedmond]

not much good stuff left then John, hope donald has not been to overtasked during the trip

 

 

Stuart From Illson

[Bob LambParticipant @boblamb44747]

Thanks for your post John. It made my decision not to go appear to be the right one. I think I would have been very fed up if I had travelled up on the basis of their advert. I am still very sorry about the whole thing but will continue to love my S7!

Bob

[RobboParticipant @robbo]

Thanks John for keeping us properly informed, unlike the liquidators. They could have done it so much better if they weren’t just men in suits.    There doesn’t seem much to make a 5 hour round trip worthwhile.

 I used to get a good lot of bar stock at the open days.

 So that’s another bit of life come to an end.

 

Phil

Edited By Robbo on 15/07/2011 23:07:59

[Anonymous]

Phil,

 

Unfortunately, as far as the liquidators are concerned they have done a good job. They’ve sold all the spares plus other bits in one go. Why should they waste their time selling one of widget x to person y, and two of widget y to person x, and then be stuck with all the widgets z, that didn’t sell. Their aim is to clear the building as quickly as possible, probably within a week or two. Next week they’ll be clearing a clothes shop, the week after that an IT company, the week after that…….

 

No doubt the above will be seen as harsh, and it is, but it’s the reality of liquidation. There’s no room for sentiment.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[NEIL SMITH 1Participant @neilsmith1]

RDG buying all the spares may not be such a bad thing,at least it gives Myford owners all over the world access to them.

[adyParticipant @ady]

Drummond lathe gear ceased over 50 years ago and a load of it is still going strong today.

 

The old British stuff was made to last so after an initial period of panic buying places like ebay and various lathe sites will take up any slack.

At least we have the netty nowadays, this makes a big big difference.

A lot more gear will be recycled for cash, compared with even 20 years ago where because of the difficulty of finding a taker a useable lathe would get lugged down to the scrappie and swapped for a 20 quid note.

 

A sad end to yet another British Manufacturer.

Myford has lasted longer than almost every indigenous British manufacturer from the 30s 40s and 50s, a testament to the product and the people who kept it going.

Myford. A name that will live on long after we have all gone to that big toolroom in the sky.

 

http://www.lathes.co.uk/myford/index.html

Edited By ady on 16/07/2011 07:26:55

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 16/07/2011 00:48:46:

Phil,

 

Unfortunately, as far as the liquidators are concerned they have done a good job. They’ve sold all the spares plus other bits in one go. Why should they waste their time selling one of widget x to person y, and two of widget y to person x, and then be stuck with all the widgets z, that didn’t sell. Their aim is to clear the building as quickly as possible, probably within a week or two. Next week they’ll be clearing a clothes shop, the week after that an IT company, the week after that…….

 

No doubt the above will be seen as harsh, and it is, but it’s the reality of liquidation. There’s no room for sentiment.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

 

This is very true and in this case it’s ironic what happened.

Myfords employed this asset management company, not liquidators, that’s next week, to sell off assets for the best price possible on behalf of Myfords.

 

When I was there anything sold and paid for was safe but if there was an offer on something you had the chance to beat that offer and until you paid for it someone else could do the same. This is their job to get the best price for Myford.

 

Unfortunately with the spares it backfired as RDG offered more.

Personally I thought the asset management people on site were very fair and understanding unlike a lot I have dealt with in the past.

 

It’s a shame to see them go, they were an iconic company but reality is you need sales and that wasn’t happening.

 

One thing to ponder is it’s the sales of new machines that matter, recycling old machines from owner to owner doesn’t make anything for the parent company and you will find that the people most vocal over this are people who have never bought a new machine from Myfords and so just add another nail to the coffin.

 

Best of luck for anyone going today or tomorrow and please post your experiances on here please.

 

John S.

[John CoatesParticipant @johncoates48577]

As a newbie of less than two years the decision of how much to spend on a lathe (and then mill) was a key consideration. I decided to buy second hand in case I didn’t like it or wasn’t very good. As a result I spent just over £700 on a lathe and a mill and they are suffering the ham fistedness of my learning journey.

 

Once I ventured a little further and began to consider what might be next new machines cropped into my mind. I can honestly say the price of a new Myford took my breath away. It is the price of a new motorcycle or small car. In my newbie state I just didn’t expect them to cost that much. It was a real eye opener.

 

Once the sale is over I will ask what the future alternatives are going to be

 

Good luck to Myford in achieving the maximum from the sale

 

John

[RobboParticipant @robbo]

Andrew,

I agree the liquidators have done a good job,as liquidators, my grouse was that they have left the same advert on websites since “liquidation day”, leading us all to believe that we could turn up at Wilmott Lane (for some of us a day’s outing) and buy spares and accessories as we need.

As John has clearly shown, this is not the case. I did have an order in just before this happened, and obviously I won’t get the stuff now.

Even David was insisting “it’s just restructuring” until it became clear it wasn’t; or perhaps he was part of the smokescreen.

 

“Even though you’re paranoid it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you!”

 

Phil.

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

I don’t smoke so could not be part of the smokescreen.

I have told the truth as I knew it at the time.

Originally it was restructuring where Myford ceased making new lathes but continued the spares side and the rebuild side of the business.

RDG came up with a good offer which was accepted so Myford are now gone.

They are not liquidators, they were a company that gets the maximum amount of money out of a business before it closes.

Things change, in this case, daily.

regards David

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

I personally think that’s what’s happened is for the best in hindsight.

 

First off take the lathes, they were too expensive which meant declining sales and short of a major restructure, possibly with some cheaper Far Eastern parts , lower running costs it was doomed.

 

Now move onto the spares and refurb business, again these were expensive because of the business model they were running but the main thing is look to the future.

Chris Moore has about 4 years to go to retire. The workforce he was going to take with him also only has a short while to go.

 

So in 4 to 7 ? years time this would all happen again.

 

RDG has 15 to 20 years on existing owners / family etc to continue. Lower running costs that may or may not be passed on to the customer to get a better business model.

 

Selling as one lot made a lot of sense.

Just imagine that after 2 weeks work they had been spares at this weekend sale.

You would have had a car park full of Reliants and hundreds of people with a shopping list.

 

“Can I have two rivets and one bolt, oh and can someone tell me how it fits ? ”

 

Result is at the end of two days the stores have reduced by 2% but they still need a buyer. Good for the customer short term but no good for Myfords long term.

 

John S.

[Andrew EvansParticipant @andrewevans67134]

It’s a sad day when a long standing British manufacturer goes under. I do think there was an opportunity for Myford to relaunch with a new business plan a few years ago though. I feel there is a gap in the Market for small quality machine tools aimed at the model engineer buyer – higher quality than some of the Chinese imports but at an affordable price say 3k for a small but quality lathe. Couple this with quality accessories, sold online and on eBay in a similar way to Chronos or RDG. they would have had to reduce manufacturing costs to be competitive and come up with some new designs but there was an opportunity there.

[Eric LougheedParticipant @ericlougheed54619]

Is my name Rip van Winkle?

I’ve not looked at the ME site for a couple of weeks_ do I understand correctly that:

1 Myford has ‘gone under’?

2 The web adverts for a sale this weekend are spurious?

Eric Lougheed

[TrevorKParticipant @trevork]

I just spent an hour there, arrived at 9:20 and the car park was quite full, much busier than an open day.. The stuff available included the usual new small tool/parts they have on their open days(not discounted) plus a lot of used/secondhand/shop floor tools, vices,chucks etc; the good stuff here was going quickly. Top shop set out with new/used lathes, these didn’t appear to have been discounted, some ‘sold’, some being wheeled out the door.

 

Chris Moore was there chatting to acquantances. A film crew arrived just as I was leaving.

 

It was quite sad really, end of an era.

 

[Author]

Posts