City Link’s parent firm founder sad at job losses

Yesterdays picket line outside City Links base at Motherwell. Picture: PA

Jon Moulton yesterday apologised to more than 2,000 UK workers who found out on Christmas Day they would lose their jobs and said the directors of Better Capital, which owns the parcel delivery firm, are “very sorry” about its collapse.

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His comments came as Scots workers gathered outside a depot in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, yesterday to protest against the prospect of redundancy. City Link employs 165 people in Scotland.

Speaking at the Motherwell protest Gordon Martin, regional organiser in Scotland for the RMT union, said: “Basically this is a right-to-work argument. These guys deserve and demand the right to work.”

Mr Martin urged MSPs and Scottish ministers to “intervene with any means possible and through any actions to try and keep this as a going concern – and if that’s not possible, to save as many jobs as possible”.

Coventry-based City Link employs 2,727 people across the UK. The RMT union expects more than 2,000 to be made redundant. The job losses are expected on New Year’s Eve, with a few posts retained to wind down the company.

More than 100 contractors work for the company in Scotland at bases in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Glenrothes and Motherwell and it is understood they are to be treated as creditors by administrators.

Asked if the collapse had been mishandled, Mr Moulton said: “Not particularly, no. First of all I must say on behalf of Better Capital and its board of directors that we are very sorry about the failure of City Link and we’re very sorry about the horrible effects that follow for the workforce and contractors.

“I’m afraid that is the result of the company failing, nothing more and nothing less, the company was not viable.”

Responding to reports redundancy packages for City Link staff could be funded with taxpayers’ money, Mr Moulton said: “I don’t think that the taxpayer is going to end up funding much of a bill at all on this.”

Mr Moulton, a multi-millionaire, said he had lost £2m on the firm’s investment in City Link.

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