Report comment

I echo the comments made by 'Wolsey Cat'. Senior management were fixated on buying calls served irrespective of value. This meant that sales staff had insufficient time to spend with the better customers and it was always about quantity not quality.

Ironically the latest Director responsible for sales (there have been a few) claimed that the break-even point for a visit was £47 net sales. Despite this, there was no cull of low-spending calls and sales staff were going daily to calls with a sales value of £10 or less.

The business was full of managers and Directors who spent no time meeting customers or their sales staff. They all claimed to be experts in the chilled foods sector but they really didn't understand their market, their customers or their sales people. The Directors and senior management should hang their heads in shame, for the failure of this business is directly attributable to their failings. The P&H failure may have bought them another few months but that is all. The business was still losing money hand over fist.