The Sports & Social Club That Wasn't

The liquor trade is a highly competitive industry, and there was a time - and not so long ago either - that major breweries would give loans to almost anyone for almost anything to get their beer into an outlet, and their sign over somebody’s front door.

And it wasn’t just money that breweries were prepared to hand out against barrelage discount or any other kind of loan. Breweries would supply tables and chairs, banquettes, curtains and billiard tables as well as beer - which is how I came be to be involved with The Willow Sports & Social Club.

According to the documents that landed on my desk one unhappy morning, this apparently thriving establishment had benefited from everything a major brewery had to offer – money, furniture and beer. And then it's 'owners' had unaccountably dropped out of sight.

I called: no one answered the telephone - day or night. I wrote: no one answered my letters. There was no response to the Writ I issued, nor to the Judgment that inevitably followed. Finally, I applied for a Warrant of Execution – and by that time accrued interest had added a considerable sum to already large amounts due for the loan, the furniture, and the beer.

I have read a great many Sheriff’s Reports in my time, but I am happy to say that I have only one read one like that which related to The Willows Sports & Social Club.

The premises proved to be a Nissen Hut in the middle of a field surrounded by a chain-link fence. There was a gate – padlocked – which in due course was opened by a locksmith. There had once been a road of sorts leading to the hut, but nature had so encroached into its fabric that it was difficult to distinguish the road from the surrounding meadow. The hut itself was, of course, empty and derelict. No furniture. No curtains. No billiard table. And no cellars nor any sign of a bar…

There was never any question of what happened to the money. It went into a bank account, from which it was very swiftly removed into another bank account, from which it was very swiftly removed into another bank account, and so on, and so on, until it finally disappeared – which came as no great surprise to me.

But the fact that they were running a Sports & Social Club did come as a very great surprise to the real owners of the premises when I finally contacted them...

It was, of course, very bad credit control all the way along the line - but that isn't the point I'm trying to make here.

I did wonder at the time – and sometimes still do wonder – what went through the minds of the people who delivered the furniture, the billiard table and the beer, and whether it occurred to them that it was really rather odd that so much furniture was expected to fit into so small a space. And even odder that there were no cellars, nor any sign of a bar...

There are a lot of articles about at the moment stressing how important it is that credit and sales personnel work as a team. Delivery personnel should be part of that equation. They have eyes and ears that are just as useful (and sometimes perhaps more useful) than the eyes and ears of the sales force, but delivery personnel won’t relay information or use their initiative unless they’re trained to be and -more importantly - made to feel that they are an important part of a team, and that their input is valuable.

Don't leave your delivery personnel out of the credit control equation.