Source: Sky news

According to Credit Action, the debtors’ charity, people go bankrupt at the rate of one every 3.69 minutes. A property is repossessed in the UK every 11.4 minutes. Spare a thought for the hard-worked staff of the Citizens Advice Bureau who handle an estimated 9.500 new debt problems every day. A staggering 16,348 individual bankruptcy petitions were made in the first three months of this year, along with 2,177 company winding-up petitions due to financial difficulty.

Source: The Independent

London-based firm Flight Options Limited, which traded as Kiss Flights, officially ceased trading. Flight Options was launched in 1995 offering flights to various Mediterranean destinations. Kiss was set up as a seat-only operator in 2008 following XL Leisure Group‘s collapse.

In all, 13 travel firms have gone bust in the UK this year as a result of the recession, belt-tightening by travellers and the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud that threw European travel into turmoil. That compares with 33 last year.

Sources:

• BBC News
• Sky News

Related Websites:

• BMI announces 600 job losses due to worst recession ever.
• 1700 BA cabin crew members pushed out without parachutes.
• Japan Airline to cut 6800 jobs.
• India’s domestic airlines to cut 2500 jobs.
• Continental Airlines sacks 500 agents.
• Airline Crunch Victims Graveyard.

Can the country stop blaming ED for everything?

British Midlands (BMI) has announced plans to lay off 600 employees and axe five routes as part of a restructuring effort aimed at returning the company to profit.  Most of the job losses at the British airline – now fully owned by German flag carrier Lufthansa – will affect cabin crew and other front-line “operational” staff.  BMI will also cease to operate outbound services to Tel Aviv, Brussels, Kiev and Aleppo as of next January, with flights to Amsterdam being axed in March.  The loss of its Tel Aviv service, which was only launched two years ago, will come as a particularly heavy blow to Heathrow’s second largest carrier.

Announcing the loss of 600 jobs from a workforce of just 4,400, the airline said;

The move takes place against a background where the airline industry is facing the challenges of a downturn in demand and the worst recession in the UK since records began.

Total losses = 600

Source: Cheapflights.co.uk

Total losses = 36

Posted by Wordmobi

Nobody wants to make a decision like this, especially when Londoners are feeling the effects of the recession. It is not a decision I have taken lightly. However, the mistakes of the past and the current economic climate have conspired to present us with a huge challenge.

Those words from the mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

So basically he is blaming it on ED!

Posted by Wordmobi

Source: CEO Randy Adams on Techcrunch;

We haven’t closed the financing. We knew when we started the company that to compete with the likes of Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, it was going to take at least $100 million, half to build the back end across thousands of servers and half to get distribution (maybe more with Microsoft spending $100 million on Bing advertising alone).

What we didn’t plan on was the terrible downturn in the economy which made it impossible to raise another $50 million to get distribution (mainly through toolbar deals). In this economy nobody wants to invest that kind of money in a company that is pre-revenue, even if the net result is potentially a multi-billion dollar company.

Cruvic: I was very sad to see this wonderful search engine up for sale and even worse offline. I used it a lot on my mobile and it was extremely useful. I do hope they find the money in the future or a suitable solution. Unfortunately their loss is someone elses gain and no doubt a company that has lots of cash to burn will take this idea and make it even better.

Related Posts: Google Fast Flip

Wikipedia: searchme

Lingerie maker Intimas has brought in the administrators after a long spell of poor trading in the Economic Downturn. The Derbyshire-based business has called in PricewaterhouseCoopers to sell the company as a going concern and protect its 200-odd employees’ positions. The administrators are to review the business and the sale options for Intimas and its main brands. Intimas reported £1.65m of losses in the first half of 2008, due to declining sales.

Intimas specialises in designing women’s lingerie and swimwear. It also manufactures brand goods for labels including Ted Baker, Lepel and Charnos, as well as collections for retailers on the high street.  Intimas signed a three-year contract to make products for Caprice Lingerie, in 2006.

Stuart Maddison, joint administrator at PricewaterhouseCoopers, believes that the sale will attract plenty of interest.

Source: Hanna Lahabib at Business Sales Report

Mica is a voluntary trading group, which allows its members, independent hardware shops, to compete with larger rivals such as B&Q. The group is owned by the independent hardware store operators, according to the company’s website. The group has over 160 member stores in the UK. The retailers also purchase their stocks through Mica.

Leonard Curtis has been appointed as administrators to the group, and has taken over the warehouse and stock.

The business is to continue to trade under the name of Mica DIY. A long-term supplier to the hardware business Stax Trade Centres is to take over the Vault as Mica’s wholesaler.

Source: Rob Moore