Bill Cullen - Ssangyoung - New Business

Does anyone know the real story in terms of him stinging local business? Was there a liquidation and a list of creditors?

DubTony

Deleted User wrote: »

Does anyone know the real story in terms of him stinging local business? Was there a liquidation and a list of creditors?

A receiver took over the hotel. I don't believe there has been a liquidation. So as far as suppliers go, it should be business as usual. I believe Cullen owned half the hotel personally. So I don't know how that affects things.

Peterdalkey

Interesting to note the general difference in response from people actually in business and those who are not!

It is clear, to me at least, that we remain to a significant degree, a nation where to fail in business is simply unacceptable and you are to be decried all the more if you had a public profile. There is a huge difference between "honest failure" and dishonest behaviour in business, as in any aspect of life, but when it comes to business and enterprise, the gombeen men like to lump them all together, as it suits their purpose.

Clearly these same gombeen men do not hold their politicians and regulators, who were actually very handsomely paid to do their jobs in an honest, professional and competent manner on behalf of the citizens, to the same standards. Rather we allow them to sail off into the sunset with lump sums, gold plated pensions, never having to account for their failures and dereliction of duty to us. Perhaps we really do get what we deserve for our own incompetence, with ignorant use of our votes. One only has to look at the make up of our houses of the Oireachtas to see a complete imbalance of skills and talents that in no way represents that of the citizenry... teachers, lawyers and former bearded brethren but uniquely the gombeen men are there in abundance., outnumbering the few good souls by a great majority.

Boom__Boom

DubTony wrote: »

A receiver took over the hotel. I don't believe there has been a liquidation. So as far as suppliers go, it should be business as usual. I believe Cullen owned half the hotel personally. So I don't know how that affects things.

I would imagine that the list of suppliers to the hotel who had given them credit any time recently (within the last 5 years) would be close to zero.

The fact that they were running the electricity in the hotel off a generator for a very long period of time says a whole lot about their utter refusal to pay what they owed.[How many businesses have you ever heard continuing to operate after their electricity supplier cut them off?] Overall it really sounded that Bill was trying to create a real life Fawlty Hotels the way they carried on.

People constantly seem to mention the whole job creation aspect - the fact that they were terrible employers never seems to get mentioned - staff turnover in the hospitality business is much higher than in other sectors but even still the staff turnover in the hotel was just ridiculous by all accounts.

It wasn't just in the hotel business itself that the Cullens adopted a terrible attitude in relation to paying - they also stung a couple of suppliers in relation to works on their house. It's one thing to not be able to pay ; it's a whole different kettle of fish to adopt an approach of won't pay unless we are forced and we have dragged things out as long as possible and made the whole process as painful as possible. Having this as your standard approach while getting up on your high horse and lecturing people about hard work in the media takes a race meeting's worth of jockeys bollox.

DubTony

I don't know anything about his paying up habits, but I do know he was a bit of a **** to work for. One of his top people in Renault (a friend of my father) used to work for a different marque at an extremely high level. Cullen treated him, and other senior employees, like crap, expecting 70+ hours a week and calling them at home at all sorts of strange hours. My old man told me that he said it was the worst move he ever made. From what I can gather, Cullen doesn't value his employees in a way that one might expect, but apparently micro manages them, despite their qualifications and experience.
I don't personally believe that these are the characteristics of a great business person, but if they are, it seems Bill Cullen is amongst the best. :rolleyes:

The Pontiac

Peterdalkey wrote: »

It is clear, to me at least, that we remain to a significant degree, a nation where to fail in business is simply unacceptable and you are to be decried all the more if you had a public profile. There is a huge difference between "honest failure" and dishonest behaviour in business, as in any aspect of life, but when it comes to business and enterprise, the gombeen men like to lump them all together, as it suits their purpose.

I didn't even like him when he successful in business. He comes across as a complete arséhole; coming out with stuff like "push", "push", "keep pushing yars selfs" " I get a 4am and I go to bed at 2am" "I stated as a poor lad in the market stall selling apples".

The last time Cullen was on The Late Late, the new dragon Ramona Nicholas was sitting next to the gloating Bill, and didn't make eye contact with him for the duration of the interview. It was embarrassing to watch.

Jesus Wept

Deleted User wrote: »

All the bluff and bluster is just marketing though really. Possibly from the Ryanair school of thought some of it, ie. any publicity is good publicity. Trump is the most glaring example of this, even going back to the eighties he was always outspoken and we'll say 'controversial' in the press. But that very PR style is what got him the Apprentice gig, something he gets $6m bucks an episode for or something in that region. Probably what kept him going during his various skirts with bankruptcy! He created a business out of his personality, Bill did something similar, to sell his books and get his own apprentice gig. Quite clever I think.

$6m an episode? I seriously doubt that.

He is insufferable.

Outkast_IRE

Boom__Boom wrote: »

The fact that they were running the electricity in the hotel off a generator for a very long period of time says a whole lot about their utter refusal to pay what they owed.[How many businesses have you ever heard continuing to operate after their electricity supplier cut them off?].

I am not sure of the details etc associated with this, but many hotels with leisure centre would have combined heat and power (CHP) generators that produce electricity and use the heat from the generation of electricity to heat hot water and depending on the setup it could possibly work for the heating system too. Nothing uncommon about it, would be common set up in hotels, some colleges and public buildings, lots of places really.

As I said im not sure on the backstory but this may be why people thought they were running generator.

maryishere

The Pontiac wrote: »

The last time Cullen was on The Late Late, the new dragon Ramona Nicholas was sitting next to the gloating Bill, and didn't make eye contact with him for the duration of the interview. It was embarrassing to watch.

'Cos that young one knows she is not fit to walk in his shadow. Pharmacies in this country are a protected little cartel. Boots make a profit per shop of 1 million a year in this country. The prescriptions arte ten times more expensive in Bundoran than in Fermanagh , and the government protects this cartel and funds it through the medical card.

At least Cullen competes with real competition, and knows what competition and graft is.

The Pontiac

maryishere wrote: »

'Cos that young one knows she is not fit to walk in his shadow. Pharmacies in this country are a protected little cartel. Boots make a profit per shop of 1 million a year in this country. The prescriptions arte ten times more expensive in Bundoran than in Fermanagh , and the government protects this cartel and funds it through the medical card.

At least Cullen competes with real competition, and knows what competition and graft is.

My local town is awash with pharmacists, many of them trying desperately to compete with the like of Boots, after they significantly cut their prescription medicines prices in 2012 (as much as 25%).

One in four pharmacies in Ireland actually operate at a loss.

Anyway, I much prefer Ramona Nicholas than the likes of the smug Cullen. The same goes for the rest of the Dragons' - they come across as very genuine and down-to-earth. Bobby Kerr's Newstalk show is also excellent, and he's nice enough to give me retweets for my business now and then.

maryishere

The Pontiac wrote: »

My local town is awash with pharmacists, many of them trying desperately to compete with the like of Boots, after they significantly cut their prescription medicines prices in 2012 (as much as 25%).

One in four pharmacies in Ireland actually operate at a loss.

Anyway, I much prefer Ramona Nicholas than the likes of the smug Cullen. The same goes for the rest of the Dragons' - they come across as very genuine and down-to-earth. Bobby Kerr's Newstalk show is also excellent, and he's nice enough to give me retweets for my business now and then.

I like Bobby Kerr and the rest of the dragons. However I reckon the fact that pharmacies have such massive marks ups on prescriptions here is why the country is awash with them, and they all seem to be making money - never saw one going out of business yet. Boots make a million per year per shop here - not bad going;)
Know someone who paid a tenner in Spain for whats €80 in an Irish pharmacy.

Our Year

Our Year wrote: »

$6m an episode? I seriously doubt that.

He is insufferable.

He claimed to be the highest paid reality star in the world, getting $130 mil for two seasons or something like that. Of course what trump says and whats true are often two different things...
But watch out he's actually sued people for challenging him on what his total net worth is

TheGodfather1

Hi I agree with you. I've read his two books and although he does blow his own trumpet a bit I have to say I think he backs it up. His attitude is amazing and to pick himself back up after all that he's been through and the death of his two siblings three weeks apart is commendable. I hope he does well with the Ssangyong dealership although I think it will be hard but no better Warrior!

TheGodfather1

Also I just saw a Parody account of Bill Cullen on Twitter kind of rips the piss out of him and his books.!

Slaacer

Didn't like him very much in the apprentice, he was trying to copy Alan sugar too much instead of being himself and then he didn't inspire me much confidence to work for him even then - Don't know much about his business and money he owes or left behind but if this is the case he should be made to pay up - if it was any of us we'd have the revenue and the sherif of Dublin on our doorstep - ridicilus people getting away with that cos we have to cough up the difference in our taxes.

However I have to admire anyone who get up and start again after a failure. Having said this I won't be getting one of these cars from him simply cos I really don't like these cars anyway.

mickdw

Is bill actually on the floor of the dealership selling cars again?

finix

He could have picked a more volume driven brand than SSANGYONG ! They only do jeep type vehicles and sold 5 in Jan and 4 in Feb for the whole of Ireland ! cant see any money selling those yokes anyway.

bbam

finix wrote: »

He could have picked a more volume driven brand than SSANGYONG ! They only do jeep type vehicles and sold 5 in Jan and 4 in Feb for the whole of Ireland ! cant see any money selling those yokes anyway.

I'd say he was damn glad to take what he could get...
In reality he's a second hand car sales man now... with a sperious brand name over the door..

Peterdalkey

23 used cars in stock, it is a start.....http://www.carzone.ie/car-dealers/Dublin/Bill-Cullen-Premier-Cars?searchsource=browse