05/04/2024
In an attempt to answer all the current issues we feel the time is right to make a statement about Discount Decking & Landscaping Supplies.
As a business we have found the end of 2023 and start of 2024 extremely challenging specifically with the amount of slow and non paying customers the business currently has, with a substantial amount of customers having to be chased via court and the sherrifs office who do their best to get results but are usually unable to recover or have to accept payment plans which will take years to pay off and are always in default.
We have been propping up other businesses locally for some time and this has put our business under extreme pressure leading us to a point where we can no longer continue to do this.
We have a plan in place to honour all outstanding customer orders in the best time frame we can and to pay our suppliers as much as possible rather than just fold and walk away.
This plan relies on those customers with outstanding debts to the business settling their accounts with us, there are people out there today landscaping who owe Discount and whilst we understand the pressures the cost of living and interest rates have caused these customers are trading and simply not paying what they owe.
When this happens to a business of our size it is always news and people seem to revel in it but when 10 landscapers of a much smaller size don’t pay our business we suffer quietly and try to continue to move forwards.
In 2023 we also suffered a huge blow when our biggest customer went through something very similar owing us a substantial amount and the discovery of large scale theft from the business, at this point we gave everything we could to continue to the end of 2023 and try to reset in 2024 but the constant slow payments and non payments has put an end to this plan. We have customers to this day who owe money from 12 months ago and with customers defaulting on payments and payment plans regularly it has lead us to where we are today.
There are a lot of properties around with gardens that have materials that have come from Discount and never been paid for going back over a year in some cases.
Our commercial side to the business suffered massive slow payments as the housing market slowed right down when interest rates increased and led some of our best paying accounts to almost overnight become our worst with substantial amounts still owing from large commercial customers from materials supplied in 2023.
Again we are not running away and we are suffering more than anyone will ever realise but we are determined to fulfill all outstanding orders and to pay our suppliers as much as possible.
Anyone who has an outstanding order will be contacted and looked after.
If you have an outstanding account with Discount then get in touch and do the right thing as you know it has gone on too long now and it’s not just Discount you are hurting.
Here’s hoping for others to try and do the right thing in order to help us do the right thing.
