Exporting to Greece

pedroeibar1

am946745 wrote: »

The product was BTO for the customer who pre-paid and collected goods from Ireland. The Haulier they used won't collect now because they can't get paid, and the supplier can't pay. Never had issues with funds before.

Anyway I think we will be wait, we have stopped production for the customer, its a 90% given the greece will leave the Euro, the banks are not going to open anytime soon.

I doubt I am the only business exporting to Greece. I see people saying the greek businesses should have prepared and moved funds offshore. Yes I suppose. But you can't cycle funds offshore now from sales you are making now. the Cash flow has stopped. If you were on a 2-3 weeks cash cycle (as my client was a distributor in greece). Ce la vie. with the Chinese stock market about to crash (we also export over there) and the Euro area in Jitters, its not a great time at the moment. the only good thing for us is the US market as they paid in dollars.. so we have a boost there with exchange rates.

IDA and TD's are beginning to help.. But I think they themselves are in a wait a see mode.

The problem I think is, if Greece goes.. Then the focus goes to Italy which has a Third of Euro Zone debt. If the dominos start to fall it will set a lot of businesses back 15 years. It could be the mother of all recessions.

Look, AM12345, don’t think I’m rude, but really, your focus should be on your business, and F the rest of the world’s economic issues over which you have no control. Greece is a basket case and will be off th eradar for yonks. Look elsewhere for growth.

Firstly, why the contradiction? Earlier you said you were out €40k- odd (I recall) and now you say the buyer pays in advance? What’s the position? If it is just shipping costs that are a problem and the buyer cannot pay the haulier for stock already PIF, then it is even more serious, - in his position I would be gone to Macedonia/Italy/wherever with a briefcase of cash. If you have not yet been paid, and the haulier cannot get paid to deliver, how the heck do you think you will be paid later?

Suggestions in an earlier post on original Bills of lading is waffle – at an unlikely best you would have product on a quay incurring demurrage; even if you had sold on an ILC your buyer could have met its conditions, got the product and you would still be unpaid because the Greek Central Bank would not / could not remit funds – that is what political risk insurance is for (or an ILC confirmation by an external bank).

Forget the BS time-wasting distraction of TDs and the IDA, the latter can do sweet FA for exporters in a situation like this (outside its ambit) and the former will waffle and talk cr@p because they know nothing. Believe me, I’ve been there.

As for your comments on the strength of the USD and depending on currency differentials to build your business profitability, forget it, you need to build your business on your product – don’t try to outsmart people in banks, you will not succeed.

You have got to take damage limitation measures now. The longer you delay the worse the result will be for you.

On a lighter note, Sinn Fein are over and back to Greece all the time giving advice to Syriza, with whom they share a bed in Bruxelles and if you believe them Greece is going to be fine, Gerry and Pierce are best buddies with Mr Tsipras and are putting him on the inside track!!! (I would not hold my breath, though!)

am946745

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Look, AM12345, don’t think I’m rude, but really, your focus should be on your business, and F the rest of the world’s economic issues over which you have no control. Greece is a basket case and will be off th eradar for yonks. Look elsewhere for growth.

Firstly, why the contradiction? Earlier you said you were out €40k- odd (I recall) and now you say the buyer pays in advance? What’s the position? If it is just shipping costs that are a problem and the buyer cannot pay the haulier for stock already PIF, then it is even more serious, - in his position I would be gone to Macedonia/Italy/wherever with a briefcase of cash. If you have not yet been paid, and the haulier cannot get paid to deliver, how the heck do you think you will be paid later?

Suggestions in an earlier post on original Bills of lading is waffle – at an unlikely best you would have product on a quay incurring demurrage; even if you had sold on an ILC your buyer could have met its conditions, got the product and you would still be unpaid because the Greek Central Bank would not / could not remit funds – that is what political risk insurance is for (or an ILC confirmation by an external bank).

Forget the BS time-wasting distraction of TDs and the IDA, the latter can do sweet FA for exporters in a situation like this (outside its ambit) and the former will waffle and talk cr@p because they know nothing. Believe me, I’ve been there.

As for your comments on the strength of the USD and depending on currency differentials to build your business profitability, forget it, you need to build your business on your product – don’t try to outsmart people in banks, you will not succeed.

You have got to take damage limitation measures now. The longer you delay the worse the result will be for you.

On a lighter note, Sinn Fein are over and back to Greece all the time giving advice to Syriza, with whom they share a bed in Bruxelles and if you believe them Greece is going to be fine, Gerry and Pierce are best buddies with Mr Tsipras and are putting him on the inside track!!! (I would not hold my breath, though!)

We can't use Bills of Lading for road shipments in the EU, anyway its pointless. Greece is going to leave the EURO.

As for Sinn Fein don't get me started, the single highest threat to business in the republic.

As for IDA and TD's well... Well I would not have been in business to the extent I am without state support. They have been pivotal to my business.. For example I needed to bring in a client from turkey, their visa was denied. One call from my TD to department of foreign affairs got the clients visa sorted for them to fly next day. (The person had already visited many times before... )

The government (past and present) have / has a great ethic for helping business, at least that is my view when jobs are involved.

pedronomix

TDs, EI and IDA have no role in the basics of commerce, however useful they may be in supports for investment and sorting the odd red tape issue. They are a red herring in this scenario.
You really need to forget about Greece until it is safe to do business there again, concentrate on options to turn the current order into some level of cash, if at all possible. Managing your costs while the business is being re-focussed on new markets and these two tasks will take all your available time. You need to look out for your own business, staff etc, cause sure as hell nobody is going to be looking out for you!

kupus

As above regarding the advice about Ida and Tds they haven't a clue. As far as I'm concerned theyre just jobs for the boys

Now you say you have labels in Serbian. I was going to post about how I could help you develope contacts there. But El rifle has much better contacts there from his post.
So take his advice and try and sell into the Serb market and get some cash for your goods instead of sending them to Greece.
Just be warned Serbia is everybit of a basket case as Greece.

kupus

one more thing....
Serbian language is same as Bosnian and Croatian and similar to Slovenia. They just use Cyrillic alphabet. It's spoken same way
Have you thought about exports to those countries. Croatia and Slovenia are in EU so may be easier in dealing with rather than Serbia and Bosnia.

antoinolachtnai

Just an observation: there is cash in Greece, it just isn't in the banks.

Maybe you could ship goods directly to his customers and get the payment directly from them? You would pay him a commission equal to his original margin.

If this guy is supplying into neighbouring countries, then he has a cashflow from outside the country. If he is dealing in cash, he has cash from there. He can always get his customers there to send you some money (instead of having them pay the money directly to his effectively dead bank account).

If he really wants to pay you and free up the stock, there is almost certainly some sort of way for him to pay you the money that is due, or failing that demonstrate how he is going to furnish you with cash in short order. If you are his major supplier maybe there is some other collateral he could provide (but you would still need to borrow or otherwise raise investment to meet your shortfall and you would need to be paid for this and his business may not be profitable enough.)

I would seriously consider making a visit to see if there is any way of sorting this out. It requires imagination, but that's business.

SpartanRoute

Cork company @SpartanRoute are solving the import/export problem through Bitcoin. Currently 3 staff on the Ground in Athens.

am946745

pedronomix wrote: »

TDs, EI and IDA have no role in the basics of commerce, however useful they may be in supports for investment and sorting the odd red tape issue. They are a red herring in this scenario.
You really need to forget about Greece until it is safe to do business there again, concentrate on options to turn the current order into some level of cash, if at all possible. Managing your costs while the business is being re-focussed on new markets and these two tasks will take all your available time. You need to look out for your own business, staff etc, cause sure as hell nobody is going to be looking out for you!

I beg to differ. TD's and IDA have their limits,, but they know that jobs in the private sector are their bread and butter. FG/FF have been pretty good in supporting the environment for my business. When I go to the TD and say I will have to fire 20 people because X can't happen fast enough then usually things move. We (in the private Sector) give them direction. It does not always work, but I have to say that Irish Government does actually listen to my business. (and I have worked all over the world...)

Ireland does not have a bad Government when I compare with others. They have Jobs as a focus. Apart from Sinn Fein, which has never engaged with us or has a pro-business focus. (my view having tried to deal with them in the north)

pedroeibar1

am946745 wrote: »

I beg to differ. TD's and IDA have their limits,, but they know that jobs in the private sector are their bread and butter. FG/FF have been pretty good in supporting the environment for my business. When I go to the TD and say I will have to fire 20 people because X can't happen fast enough then usually things move. We (in the private Sector) give them direction. It does not always work, but I have to say that Irish Government does actually listen to my business. (and I have worked all over the world...)

Ireland does not have a bad Government when I compare with others. They have Jobs as a focus. Apart from Sinn Fein, which has never engaged with us or has a pro-business focus. (my view having tried to deal with them in the north)

You can differ all you like, but you are wrong and Pedronomix is correct.
Your anecdote about telling a TD you will fire 20 people unless..... is BS. Not the way it works. Been there, seen that tried and the (bloody) result.

Earlier you said you were owed an amount of debt that was enough to close you down, yet later you said you were paid in advance for your product. I asked about that, yet was ignored. Why? You came here with a problem, you got various views and advice, from solid to stupid. Now you are lecturing us on politics, while, supposedly, your business is going down the tubes. Go figure ...why people might believe you just like the sound of your own voice!

pedronomix

Only 640+ posts in two months!
Will be interested to see how they help in getting OPs payments from Greece back on track

kupus

Editing due to been very harsh. And I don't know all the circumstances. But I can only say what i see here. And he has been given wonderful advice here.
All the while giving the Tds credit. Imo dealing with governments is a nightmare, civil servants haven't a clue about anything outside their own comfortable little bubble and they could care less.

pedronomix

well it smells shill to me!

kupus

pedronomix wrote: »

well it smells shill to me!

I know pedro, and that's what I stated. But you never know. I'm the type that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck. Maybe I'm mellowing out in my old age.

pedronomix

kupus wrote: »

I know pedro, and that's what I stated. But you never know. I'm the type that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck. Maybe I'm mellowing out in my old age.

you posted it first... I liked it.. you deleted it.. I deleted my "like" .....I posted it again ..deal done!!

micosoft

kupus wrote: »

As above regarding the advice about Ida and Tds they haven't a clue. As far as I'm concerned theyre just jobs for the boys

Not sure why the hating on the IDA here.

First of all the IDA is there to attract inward investment. Why on earth would they be have anything to do with exports

Unless of course you mean Enterprise Ireland. In which case, again, not their job.

It's not the Governments job to get involved in a private businesses exports. We saw what happened with the Beef scandal.

But more to the point, it would be great if people actually thought for a second before spewing invective at organisations for something they have nothing to do with....:rolleyes:

pedronomix

I see OP has closed his acoount! Hmmmm

andrew

pedronomix wrote: »

I see OP has closed his acoount! Hmmmm

Hopefully it's just the account he's had to close :eek: