CASE - you decide.

[neep___docker]

In light of the recent round of postings and threads on how CASE (Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise) invests in businesses, below is a summary of all finance for business packages they approved, above £30,000, between April 2001 and October 2004.

It would be interesting if anyone who has contact with the relevant companies can add to the observations, in particular on their current status, and the number of employees.

The concusion is that in investing just over £5million, 50% of that has been sunk in companies that have gone bust over that time period. Infact, the more worrying statistic is that the relevant companies (Grampian Records, Caithness Glass and Norfrost) called in the receivers within a matter of months of receiving their share of the £2.7million that was lost.

April 2001 – Grampian Records - £1.1million – enter DVD market – to create 84 jobs.
Observation: Bust.

July 2001 – Granit Union Ltd - £62,700 – expand quarry - 11 new jobs.
Observation: Gone.

September 2001 – Scrabster Harbour Trust - £67,100 – build an office – 12 new jobs.
Observation: CASE Board Member.

December 2001 – Grampian Records - £258,875 – enter CD market – 40.5 jobs created or retained.
Observation: Bust.

December 2001 - Scotch Premier Meat - £115,000 – lamb slaughterhouse in Dornoch – 50 new jobs.
Observation: Currently employs 14 staff (not 50) according to its parent company ANM Group.

March 2002 - Parkhill Hotel, Durness - £50,000 - upgrading development – 6.5 new jobs.
Observation: Not listed on VisitScotland.

May 2002 - Caithness Glass - £32,600 equipment for factory – 5 jobs retained.
Observation: Bust.

June 2002 - Caithness Slate Products - £206,100 - expansion of quarry - 39 new jobs.

August 2002 - D Gow & Son - £62,500 - Business development – 10 new jobs.

November 2002 – Ackergill Tower - £44,000 – tree house – 2.5 new jobs.
Observation: CASE Board Member

November 2002 - TM Sutherland & H Chambers - £58,300 - restaurant at Evelix Filling Station – 9.5 new jobs.

November 2002 - Caithness Multi Media - £35,000 - marketing of software.

February 2003 - Scrabster Seafoods - £507,400 fish processing plant – 14 new jobs.
Observation: CASE Board Member

February 2003 - Ashley Anne Ltd - £40,688 – expand factory.

March 2003 - AEA Technology Battery Systems - £80,000 - purchase of plant.

March 2003 - Dunbeath Engineering - £56,000 - development of the company – 3 new jobs.

March 2003 - Dornoch Castle Hotel - £81,000 - redevelopment of hotel – 7.5 new jobs.

March 2003 - Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats - £39,700 - upgrading hotel – 6.25 new jobs.

March 2003 – A&D Sutherland - £69,500 – upgrade Spittal quarry – 4.5 new jobs.

May 2003 - JGC Engineering - £46,100 - specialist plant – 10 new jobs.
Observation: CASE Board Member.

June 2003 - City Centre Estates (Leisure) Ltd - £64,900 - establish a high quality self-catering and leisure facility at Latheronwheel – 4.5 new jobs.

July 2003 - Caithness Glass Ltd - £92,600 – specialist equipment – 10 jobs retained.
Observation: Bust.

October 2003 – Essentia Group - £350,000 - call centre in Brora – 26 new jobs.

October 2003 – Edward Mackay - £210,000 – specialist machinery – 10 new jobs.

December 2003 - Mackay’s Hotel, Wick - £85,500 - upgrading hotel – 7.5 new jobs.

February 2004 – D Gow and Son Ltd - £31,800 - specialist equipment – 8 jobs retained.

April 2004 Drumbeg Salmon / Loch Duart Ltd - £182,400 – upgrade facilities – retain 16 jobs.

April 2004 – Loch Duart Ltd - £60,600 - upgrade fish farm – 3 new jobs.

May 2004 - Norfrost - £1.2m - implement their strategic plan – retain 217 jobs.
Observation: Bust.

October 2004 - MM Miller (Wick) Ltd - £47,200 - relocation of company.


Total invested : £5,337,563

Invested in companies now bust: £2,684,075

Ratio : 50.2%

[neep___docker]

Someone has messaged me and worked out that if all of he new jobs listed have actually been created, then that would be 320 new jobs for the area. But, they then deducted the jobs lost to the failed companies, and ended up with a negative number.

i.e. for £5million of financial support, there were more jobs lost than created over the 3 years.

[concerned resident]

C.a.s.e.
Some years back I did a business deal, and as a part of it, I ended up with some large buildings (wind and water tight and in good condition) which the previous residents had vacated, which were surplus to my requirements. So I stupidly thought I would do a bit for the Community, so maybe some new entrepreneurs, might get some cheap premises to rent, to give them a good start. Arranged interview with lady at CASE,
Offered , that they maintain buildings, occupants pay their rates and electric bills, and at a cost of one pound a year rental to CASE. I was given a lot of waffle, and basically told where to stick it. You can come to your own conclusions, but my views are, they are not there for what is in the best interests for Caithness.

[jb]

If you listen to CASE they be virtue of their setup have to invest where no one else will. This will then give a higher failure rate than that of a commercial finiancial institution. They will also claim that is it not better to invest money and prolong some jobs and give some chance for the businesses to trade out of trouble than to not support them and close down early with the loss of jobs.
It does seem that CASE have problems sticking to their own rules regarding who and what they fund.
One of the main rules is that they will not fund a new business if one already exisits. Grant list above seems to rule that one out many times.
They will not invest if money can be obtained commerically (IE a company in good health with good prospects) Again seems to be a bit suspect given the list above.
They are fair to all who apply for funds. It may only be perception that board members get more money than others but they also know how to work the system better than others and as such are more successful in getting grants.
They have funding priorities for each year.These priorities are set by HIE in Inverness and CASE only implement them. Does any one out there know what CASE's priorities are for this year??
With regard to the list of businesses above i think you may find that Granit Union have closed and done a runner and Caithness Slate Products have changed hands, some of the others are doing quite well but did they create the number of jobs they said they would. That has always been a bit of a black art predicting jobs saved / created.

It is possible that every thing with CASE is above board but given the lack of info they give out how can we tell.
It is also intresting to note that CASE give the smallest amount of training money in the Highlands towards the training of apprentices. They claim it is because they have so many to fund in this area. Ross and Cromarty i believe offer the most. I would have thought that the CASE boss would have been back to HIE and asked for more money to make everyone in the Highlands equal , but hey that would be money well spent!!

Given that Dounreay is on the way down (220 jobs gone already) do we trust CASE to get it right this time given their track record??

[squidge]

I am not sure CASE can win on this one to be honest.

Norfrost
Grampian Records
Hunters of Brora
Caithness Glass

These were all very important businesses for the area - they were about employment.

Can you imagine what would have been said had CASE stood there with the potential to save jobs and did nothing? Seen the places close without attempting to help?

The areas where there a have been successes appear to be some of the smaller businesses. In addition the "new jobs created" always baffles me. Very often the say this will create this number of jobs but you never see any advertised. You would assume that if money was being awarded on this basis that employers should be made to advertise their jobs to all comers. I wonder where this happens.

[neep___docker]

Can you imagine what would have been said had CASE stood there with the potential to save jobs and did nothing? Seen the places close without attempting to help?

I think that's what's at the root of the issue - for those companies listed, no amount of money were going to save them by the time CASE got round to pumping millions in them.

As someone already said, Norforst was a one-idea company; the market for Hunters and Caithness Glass had changed but the companies hadn't; Grampian Records had completely missed the boat by the time they got round to thinking about DVDs and CDs.

Indeed someone had suggested in a previous thread that the Grants were already planning their way out of the business when the CASE £1.2million went in.

And the Hunters of Brora example is an even more scandolous example - the company involved got CASE to build them a buliding, but they never bought the equipment and plant to go in it.

[The Pepsi Challenge]

CASE closed.

[Rheghead]

An Open and shut C.A.S.E.

[neep___docker]

In addition the "new jobs created" always baffles me. Very often the say this will create this number of jobs but you never see any advertised. You would assume that if money was being awarded on this basis that employers should be made to advertise their jobs to all comers. I wonder where this happens.

The measure of 'jobs created' obviously became too embarassing for CASE, as for the past year they have stopped publishing that information in their monthly report to the natives.

[The Pepsi Challenge]

It was good while it lasted C.A.S.E._of_death but neep_docker has overthrown you and is now the new chancellor of caithness.org foums. Go neep! I'm with you all the way, ma man. :o)

[champagnebaby]

either that or neep docker IS case of death???? case of death has been rather quiet since neep docker appeared on the scene :eek:

[neep___docker]

With regard to the list of businesses above i think you may find that Granit Union have closed and done a runner

You are quite correct.

Granit Union Ltd called in the receivers in July 2002, just a few months after being given over £60,000 from CASE.

[webmannie]

Do CASE actually give them the money up front?

As far as I can see they pledge support up to the value of, the company has to spend the full amount and claim back. The company must also prove that they have spent the money i.e. show the bank statement

[buggyracer]

For every £1 granted the business must match that £1 with there own money. And provide detailed accounts of expenditure to prove this.

[neep___docker]

I'm afraid, buggyrace, if only it was that stringent.

Having seen it done many times, there are no end of accounting wheezies to get round the matched funding issue (remember 'a pound' doesn't actually have to be that shiny gold thing in your pocket - it can be something that represents 'a pound').

As to whether the companies actually got the money or not, you can be sure they did in most of these cases.

Anyway, the bigger issue isn't whether or not the money was spent, it was the fact that it was approved for many of these businesses in the first place, since so many of them collapsed just months after the funding decisions were made. And in Norfrost's case, the funding decision was made without annual audited accounts being lodged at Companies House since 2002.

[katarina]

I don't think they were wrong to give money to the businesses that went bust, if they helped these to keep going it would provide employment. Their mistake is not looking very closely at the accounts of these businesses and isolating any weak points and making sure they were rectified before handing over the money. And after the handout, the accounts and business performances should be closely monitored. for money to be handed over and the business go belly up a few months after seems very suspicious to me.
Also, as some one else pointed out, why not help the ssmaller business? We applied for some help at one time to be told in no way. the reason? There were already enough similar businesses in the area. Didn't matter that the demand far outstripped the supply.

[scorrie]

either that or neep docker IS case of death???? case of death has been rather quiet since neep docker appeared on the scene :eek:

Well, let's look at the evidence. Case of Death - last post at 9.55 PM 28th May. Neep__Docker- new membership on 29th May!!

I notice that a Neep_Docker (one underscore only) also joined on 29th May but has not posted yet!! Is that the spare for the next time the door is closed?

Members of the Jury, I rest my CASE

[neep___docker]

June 2003 - City Centre Estates (Leisure) Ltd - £64,900 - establish a high quality self-catering and leisure facility at Latheronwheel – 4.5 new jobs.

I was sent some info today that suggested that this is yet another of the funding cases listed at the start of this thread which has bit the dust.

Does anyone, particulary from Latheronwheel, know if that is so - the development was to have been at Craiglea ?

If it is, then we're now getting close to the £3million mark as to the total of finance approved for projects that were bad funding decisions - and that's from a total of just over £5million, so the ratio is getting worse as more info appears.

Also (and you can spot the trend emerging here) the company to whom the funding was awarded is confirmed by Companies House as having NEVER submitted a set of audited annual accounts in its life - since 2004, accounts of any sort have been long overdue.

[Setanta]

Sorry for just throwing this in but I am curious. It seems that the indigenous people of Caithness who are; would be entrepreneurs, or small business people have a hell of a time getting finance from CASE and I just can’t understand this. The anagram does stand for Caithness and Sutherland doesn’t it ? Are the people who man it from outside these two places?? Let’s look at the Irish equivalent, now when it is asked for money/help they people nearly always get it and here is something that going to make some of you mad. If an adventure is looked at and the costing that the individual has put on seems tight it is usual for the Irish equivalent to give more just encase the individual runs into trouble. It seems to me that the people that work at Case think the money is coming out of their own pockets.
Now I have a real petty theory (allegedly) because this is such a small community everyone almost knows everyone, maybe the people at case don’t like those locals that are asking for help :~( . Maybe they didn’t like them at school. :roll: Maybe they ran off with their girlfriend/boyfriend at one time. :lol: Maybe they beat them at a pool match somewhere. I really don’t just get it. Etc. etc etc
I know people here who can’t get a dime, I know people in Eire who have prospered in the same situation as I say it blows me away :mad: .