The Tech-Board Story (Stranger then fiction)

The true story of the most dramatic "Greenfield Startup" failure in British manufacturing history

So What Went Wrong?

Guy: Having been with Malcolm over the years and seen him redesign the mill on the back of a fag packet…fundamental decisions like the size of the press were not thought through properly, I think the mill was under engineered. How did this happen?. I think because it took so long to raise the money, it’s very difficult to say to your potential backers, as you’re negotiating with them over the course of many years, that the price has just gone up. So the mill budget remained the same over several years, the equipment in it had to be downsized.

That, for what it’s worth, is my theory…oh, and he employed a load of nutters to run it! AYE!!!!

Pierre:: Well,  here is what I think:-

• Spending to much to soon. Don't get me wrong some of the people working at Tech-Board were worth their weight in gold, but others were "less desirable". For example, the average senior manager working in a manufacturing company local to Tech-Board would have probably be on 25k per year. So why pay the technicians the same ?
• The great cock-up on the annual hours contracts resulting in thousands of hours of overtime must have crippled all the cash flow forecasts.

Other theories most welcome, put them in the guest book on the main page