Scottish MP wades in on Misco warehouse closure

Politicians speak out on social media, with Misco CEO Cantwell offering to speak personally with critics

The planned closure of Misco's Scotland warehouse has garnered attention from politicians north of the border, with one Labour representative claiming the decision "doesn't show much imagination".

Misco CEO Alan Cantwell confirmed to CRN yesterday that the facility in Greenock will be shut at the end of the year, with all 65* warehouse staff set to be made redundant.

Following the story's publication, the MP for Inverclyde (the constituency in which the warehouse is located) Ronnie Cowan posted on Twitter that he was meeting with Scottish government agency Scottish Enterprise to discuss the issue - while also contacting skills and training agency Skills Development Scotland.

In other social media posts, the Scottish Labour Party's political director Martin McCluskey criticised Misco bosses for the redundancies, claiming their rationale "doesn't show much imagination about how [the] facility could be re-used to save jobs".

Misco has since responded to Cowan and McCluskey on Twitter, offering them the chance to speak with Cantwell.

A spokesperson from Cowan's office said the MP is due to speak to Cantwell either today or tomorrow, while McCluskey had not responded to CRN's request for comment.

Warehouse woes

Speaking to CRN yesterday Cantwell explained that, regrettably, the decision had been made to shut down the warehouse because it was no longer economical.

While originally set up to ship 6,000 parcels a day, the facility is currently shipping between 400 and 500 parcels daily.

Elaborating on the situation today, having seen the posts on social media, Cantwell said the Greenock team has been a credit to Misco - highlighting also that all 24 sales people based in the warehouse will be transferred to a new office nearby.

"I spoke to one of the local reporters yesterday because I wanted to reaffirm that the team at Greenock had been without a doubt one of the best performing teams in Misco over the years," he said. "No one likes doing this and it really is with great regret that you have to."

Misco is working with the Scottish agency PACE [Partnership Action for Continuous Employment], a Scottish Government initiative designed to help people into a new job, he added.

Cantwell also dispelled rumours that Misco was being refused credit by its distributors, saying that its distribution partners have been incredibly supportive since he took over - particularly Exertis and Westcoast.

He added that this is, in part, because the reseller has the taken steps to ensure that its suppliers are kept up to date on how the restructuring process is unfolding.

"Westcoast and Exertis have been great," he said. "They've been easy to deal with and they're not trying to suddenly make more margin out of us when they realise that we're going through this phase. They're allowing us to make margin and they're maintaining the credit limit.

"We're also reporting to all of the insurers and distributors on a monthly basis with our financial performance, so we have full transparency. That is why a lot of the distributors and suppliers are continuing to be very supportive."

*Since this article was published, Misco has got in touch to clarify that the actual number of staff affected is 62