back to article Evesham sale imminent?

Evesham Technology looks set to be on the brink of a buy-out, with TimeUK rumoured to be the strongest candidate to takeover the firm. As we exclusively revealed a few weeks ago, Evesham's owner and chairman Richard Austin confirmed to El Reg that the UK computer vendor was in talks with several interested parties. We also …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I Can't Imagine Worse News

    I purchased a laptop from Evesham and have been very happy with it, to the point of being willing to buy from them again. I would NEVER EVER buy from Time. How they can even show their face again following their collapse I don't know. No doubt they will manage to destroy the combined company like they have destroyed everything else they have touched, once again leaving customers to pick up the pieces.

  2. Simon Oxlade

    Disaster

    Evesham is a solid company making decent machines and charging sensible prices - everything that Time were not. Had one Evesham machine and it was brilliant, and the company has been showing real flair recently with its TV and media centre products.

    I agree with Barry that no who was ever involved with Time computers should show their face in computer space again. Not only were their products poor and their service woeful (I had a Time PC once too), but the way they went bust just showed how poor a company they were.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    poor show on eveshams part

    i bought a laptop from evesham and would never buy from them again. their tech support has been horrendous (i work for dell tech support, maybe i just have higher standards).

  4. Peter Kay

    Time? Oh please no.

    TimeUK, of course, are doing nothing at all illegal. Granville went into administration, and the license to use the name was gained by the brother of the founder of Granville. The assets were gained from the administrators of the company that actually produced the PCs for Granville.

    There were complaints at the time that the administration was shoddily handled, and many customers lost money. They undoubtedly feel aggrieved that another similar looking company was quickly set up. You can understand why people might be aggrieved at their apparent perception, but the assets and license to use the name were legally acquired.

    I do, however, note that I haven't seen TimeUK win any awards recently, unless anyone can correct me. There are many other PC assemblers in the UK, and major manufacturers like Dell, IBM, etc offer basically sound machines at a decent price.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LOL

    Dell tech support and higher standards...

    That made me laugh.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good after sales service

    I have bought various PC's from Evesham since 1995 and can only say that their after sales service has been excellent, in fact they were the one company that I really trusted, I was about to but a new PC from them but if Time are taking over I will not ever deal with Evesham again!

    IMHO Evesham have tried to get to big and take on stuff best left to those better organised to cope with, such as TV's, they used to be a very dependable smaller company who specialised in Computer stuff but tried to get too big and moved into a huge new ostentatious headquarters.

  7. AndyB

    Why can't some things just STAY dead!

    Its like the living dead rising from the grave to eviscerate and feed on all the unsuspecting :-(

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's been downhill for some time I'm afraid

    The company has been going down hill for a long time. They should have gotten rid of all there stores a long time ago which seemed to have been happening slowly towards the end.

    With the stores gone the focus could be put on the website(s) and the support they used to be so good at. In my opinion it is awards and good reviews that attract people. Those that aren't in the know often turn to those who are and they could steer them in Evesham's direction.

    Looking after their employees is something else they failed badly on and moving to over the top premises that was badly designed in terms of practicality did not help.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Downhill ?

    I bought an Evesham machine about 18 months ago. Admittedly, I re-formatted the thing to get rid of the crudware, but it has been running as solid as a rock ever since. NOT Pleased that they would have to sell to Time.

    I'll be looking elsewhere for the next one.

  10. Shane Bryan

    No, no, no no

    A sad state of affairs, it has been for a whilst mind. But TIMEUK!!! No, no, no, no.

    The government could have shifted something, maybe money *grin*, into the direction of Evesham after the HCI collapse, but alas, the government are tight with our money.

    Damn... I'm sitting here, at my computer, using an Evesham 37" TV as a monitor. I recently installed a couple of sticks of RAM into a brothers computer, bought via Evesham. There is an entire workstation downstairs bought from Evesham. I also live in Evesham. I remember the days of the familys first computer when we didn't live here, made by Evesham. And, hehe, I have just received a promotion email from Evesham. The last entire computer I bought from Evesham was for the grandma, her old one was a TimeUK machine. She much prefers the Evesham and grandma always knows best.

    Oh how I will miss the days of me and the sales team, out in the car park, joking around, trying to fit my 37" TV into the back of an Aldi A4.

    Sure, the Evesham showroom will always exist - probably - but owned by TimeUK.

    No, no, no, no.

  11. Rob Beard

    The end of an era?

    I remember Evesham from the days of the Amiga & Atari ST and I'm sure I read somewhere that they were around years before that too.

    I couldn't help thinking this is going to turn out bad. I feel for the staff who were taken on at the Evesham store in Norwich when it opened as I worked with a couple of them when the store was Software Warehouse before the days of Jungle.com.

    I'd give it 12 months before the service is on par with the old Time Computers.

    Rob

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just had to comment back on that supposed Dell employee's comments

    And all I can say is ROFLMFAO, yeah right :P

    As with regards to getting a system, I just ordered and recieved delivery within the specified time and to their usual high standards from the Southampton branch, I've bought from Evesham for years and will continue to do so as long as their reputation and service remains what it is, the best in the business, regardless of who is running the company!

    Evesham are built on 20+ years of experience (call me a loyal customer! :) and that isn't suddenly going to change.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Go Go Richard

    Having known Richard since the early days I have every confidence that he will do the best thing for the business and employees. Still one of the nice honest guys in the industry and im sure he is doing his best to make sure that the right deal is done for everyone.... but will be a shame to close a deal with Time.. get the cash in advance first Richard and dont believe anything until you bank it. Good luck, Long Live Evesham.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Information please!

    It would be nice if the people who matter, i.e. the work force, were kept informed. There has been a severe lack of communication from senior management regarding the future of the company. Unfortunately, it doesn't look good.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    same old

    i agree.. we aint kept informed at all!!!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Information

    There's only one way this is going and that's South.....the employees and the distributors will be the losers. The only winner is going to be Evesham's MD who will somehow squeeze whatever he can out of it just prior to it all going pop! Next week will be when the s**t hits the fan.....

  17. Ronald Moss

    two options

    I've known of Evesham for several years now, the fact is the PC industry in this country is really tough, I read that they lost £2M last year and credit limits have been removed so they either downscale in a big way to reduce running costs or merge with another company who will increase the buying power they have to enable them to keep trading, I feel for you guys working there but they cannot go another year making a loss; at least it looks like they are trying to survive.

  18. Peter Skyte

    Information and consultation

    Looks like the workforce needs to be organised in a union before it is too late.

    Peter Skyte

    Unite the Union

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re; Information Please

    TBH Evesham are masters of the mushroom farming school of management. they were the same when i worked there, and by all accounts talking to friends, they still are. GL to all employees of 'sham

  20. Richard Malin

    Just another sign of the times!

    How sad to hear of Evesham's financial difficulties. Whether or not this is all down to the demise of the HCI initiative or just bad management we may never know. What is certain is that as with Dell's recent financial problems, it must all stem from a lack of profitability. The market dictates that we can buy a fully spec'd PC with a 22" wide screen monitor for less than £600. I just have! 15 years ago I bought a 486 PC with a 12" monitor and a 40mb (yes, MB!) hard drive for £1200! So what chance do any of the mainstream PC manufacturers stand when they are left making probably less than £50 per machine sold? Why should we be able to pay so little for so much when we are all earning far more than we were 15 years ago? The same thing has happened to the shoe industry and the car market. At the risk of shooting myself in the foot (pardon the pun) I am guilty of buying (Imported) leather shoes from Asda for £14 a pair when I should be buying British ones for nearer £50 a pair. As with new cars, the market is dictating prices and leaving the manufacturers and retailers no choice but to lower prices in a never ending downward spiral of reducing profitability. Eventually all the shoe factories closed (bar a few specialists), most large volume car plants have dissapeared, and it looks like we may lose a major British computer manufaturer if Evesham should go the same way. Let's hope Evesham can turn things around. I buy PC's and TV's from them, for both work and home and I have always found the products reliable and the company a pleasure to deal with. I fear a lack of public confidence will already have had an affect on their already precarious business. I wish them well in their recovery and will remain a loyal customer as long as they are there.

This topic is closed for new posts.