Snow forecasts spook distributors

Distributors have expressed fear they could be hit again as the UK this morning woke up to forecasts of yet more snow.

Distributors based in Basingstoke were among those worst hit last week, with reports that broadliner Computer 2000 (C2000) was forced to shut its head office early on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

James Ward, managing director at Basingstoke-based storage distributor Hammer, said the snow forced it to operate with a skeleton staff last week and admitted it was unable to ship any goods from its warehouse for about 36 hours.

“Before Christmas there was a big dump of snow, but only in Basingstoke, and it happened again last week. We tried to get back to normal on Friday but more snow is forecast for the next couple of days.”

Both Hammer and C2000 are based on an industrial estate that is situated on a steep slope, Ward said, making vehicular access tricky.

Peripherals specialist Micro-Peripherals is also based in Basingstoke, and product and marketing director Mark Kahr claimed it was the only one of the trio to remain open for normal working hours on Thursday and Friday.

“It was a management decision; we did not feel it was necessary to close,” he said.

“On Wednesday we stayed open for half a day. 40 per cent of staff bravely walked in as they could not get in by car after police closed the road. Our northern office was still up and running so sales calls were diverted.”

C2000 is believed to have shut its head office at 3.30pm on Friday and 2.30pm on Thursday, although the distributor was unable to confirm this. Hammer confirmed that the last employee left at 5pm on Thursday.

Sukh Rayat, senior vice president sales at distributor Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA, said: "We had two days [Wednesday and Thursday] when we had to close the [head] office as the Bracknell area was particularly bad. We equipped a lot of our sales guys with mobile technology so they could work from home and not being purely a fulfilment distributor allowed us to continue servicing customers without a lot of disruption. If the snow comes again, we will take the same measures again."

According to the Met Office, sleet and snow will spread eastwards across southwest England today. Sleet and snow is forecast for many central and northern areas tomorrow.