Wrightbus, £15m and the Evangelical Super Church

Muahahaha

Anyone been following this story? Its really bizarre stuff going on up in Ballymena.

You have the CEO of Wrightbus, Jeff Wright, son of the founder William Wright who is also the pastor of the adjacent Evangelical Green Pastures Church. Green Pastures can only be described as a super church along the lines of what you would see in the US. Take a look at the website, the sermons are live streamed across Youtube and the alter of the church is more akin to a stage at a rock concert complete with giant screens and advanced audio. Congregations there are typically over 1,000 people for a single sermon by the Pastor Jeff.
https://www.gpastures.co.uk/


Wrightbus are/were a very successful bus building company who supply many customers, including Transport for London and Dublin Bus. Last week they went into administration with the loss of 1,200 jobs which is going to have a pretty devastating effect on the town of Ballymena. But now it is coming out that Pastor Jeff was funneling off about a third of WrightBus profits towards the Green Pastures church which has resulted or at least sped up the companies demise. in 2017 he donated £4.2m of Wrightbus profits into the church which resulted in a £1.7m annual financial loss for the company. In total is has funneled £15m of company profits to the church at a time when Brexit has meant a weakening of sterling when they need to buy parts from other European couintries in euro. He did all this to fund his pet project- an expansion of Green Pastures to cover 97 acres and numerous more buildings, football pitches and a college.

The deluded Jeff Wright is a heavy believer in the power of God to finance the Church:-

In two sermons in 2016 Wright, 54, the son of Wrightbus co-founder William Wright, told an 850 strong congregation that Green Pastures needed completed because "the world is ending".
He urged them to help find 400 new members for the emerging evangelical super-church at Ballee saying "Jesus is coming" and no seats should be empty.

Wright said: "I don't think you know the size of the church that you're about to build. Honestly. You only think you know. But when you see it, see when the steel goes up? "You need to understand. And here's the thing — God will finance all of this, incredibly. Millions, millions.

"It's just not possible. Without any businesses or without any Asda's or anything like that, finance it all – why? Because it's his will."

So now it turns out that God wasnt funding it at all but instead Wrightbus was and now 1,200 jobs have been lost with a further 1,700 under threat in the companies engineering supply chain.

To top everything off Pastor Jeff Wright is supporter of Brexit which is the very thing that has accelerated his companies decline- orders for buses to be supplied to the EU market dried up because of the uncertainty of supply and tariffs that would be put on importing their buses.

Now Pastor Jeffs employees are turning against him, protest placards yesterday included "1 Ego=1200 Jobs" and "God is not money". On top of this the Wright Family and specifically Pastor Jeff have been receiving death threats as well as large scale anger within the community. And then you've got the links to Ian Paisley Junior and the DUP, key proponents of Brexit who are now wondering how to sell this one to the 1,200 people, many who would be DUP voters who have been immediately been laid off.

Its a clusterfcuk of epic proportions that really lays bare the dangers of mixing religion, business and politics.

SafeSurfer

Ballymena needs more churches

tipptom

Ian Paisley jnr said "nothing to see here" so I think that should settle it then!

Was there also something also about some Wrightbus employees "church donations" being taken out of their weekly wages which I thought was very strange.

enricoh

God wanted it this way! Meh, its only ballymena, not the most affable of folk up there. As a result sympathy is in short supply!

banie01

Brexit supporting Gammon who's financial support for a sky fairy and a vanity project "church" contributes to the insolvency of Ballymena's last major employer.
Couple that with a fantastical belief in Brexit unicorns, and the orders for your product drying up as it becomes more and more likely that the product you rely on export markets to buy, may be left on the shelf as other countries look to likely costs of tariff and import duties on top of your current pricing...


Tis shocking altogether that it could have gone wrong!
I wonder if Wright Bus' troubles are due to
1. Not having enough faith in God?
2. God deciding to test the faith of all those associated with Wright Bus alá Job?
3. Its always darkest before the dawn... And their Sky Fairy is changing the bulb?
4. People not being Brexity enough?
5. Inherent stupidity and a lack of Macro-Economic competence?
or
6. The Taigs! Even when it was the Bears, I mean everything else! It was always somehow the catholics! I can't wait to find out how Brexit and the collapse of N.I's exporting businesses are all part of a Popish plot!

T'is a Wright mess altogether

Muahahaha

banie01 wrote: »

6. The Taigs! Even when it was the Bears, I mean everything else! It was always somehow the catholics! I can't wait to find out how Brexit and the collapse of N.I's exporting businesses are all part of a Popish plot!

Open to correction but I thought I read somewhere a few weeks back that 89% of Wright Bus employees are Protestant and that the Pastor Jeff would order them to show up to his sermons on Sundays. They cant blame the Taigs for this one

The whole thing is bizarre, the ego of one man with a god delusion has brought down a successful business and an entire community. Its the stuff of cults with politics and Brexit chucked in for additional measure.

ohnonotgmail

Muahahaha wrote: »

Open to correction but I thought I read somewhere a few weeks back that 89% of Wright Bus employees are Protestant and that the Pastor Jeff would order them to show up to his sermons on Sundays. They cant blame the Taigs for this one

The whole thing is bizarre, the ego of one man with a god delusion has brought down a successful business and an entire community. Its the stuff of cults with politics and Brexit chucked in for additional measure.

Well it cant be the fault of Wright himself so it must be the taigs.

ArrBee

banie01 wrote: »

I wonder if Wright Bus' troubles are due to
4. People not being Brexity enough?

Especially like that one.

Topgear on Dave

Junior takes over the family business built up over time by senior and promptly runs it smack bang into the ground.

A story as old as the Bible.

godtabh

IF they are profits the donations cant be losses.

aerburdz

27% of Ballymena is Catholic and 66% is Protestant.

Interestingly, 12% identify as Irish and 66% as British.

The town is not only Prod Central but Brit Central as well:(.

Muahahaha

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Well it cant be the fault of Wright himself so it must be the taigs.

You're wright, it must have been the Taigs wot done it :pac:

DUP and Paisley have egg all over their face on this one. They were told Brexit would create economic chaos and now here we are. Its really hard to believe how people whose very job depends on being in the EU market would then go and vote to leave the EU, it takes a special kind of stupidity to do that. Similar situation with Nissan in Sunderland where 9,000 jobs are under threat while the community overwhelmingly voted for Brexit.

The problem for Wrightbus now is finding a buyer to save the company and at least some of the jobs. Problem is anyone investing now is taking a bet on the outcome of Brexit and the results of a free trade agreement with the EU which is at least two years away. They are courting a Chinese firm but with all the uncertainty due to Brexit it would be a huge punt to take them over right now.

jelutong

Deleted User wrote: »

T'is a Wright mess altogether

Wright Ted.

20Wheel

God, wrightbus....whatever. same thing.

Harry Palmr

This is shocking but not surprising Evangelicals are famously mad, and rich on the back of gullible schmucks. Is the any evidence of money being syphoned off or was it accounted for in the books? If the latter then the accountants are the ones who needs to be sued.

20Wheel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35K6vQRt67g

Fann Linn

Wright backed the wrong god.
Sh1t happens.

punisher5112

It's like any cult they're bizarre and so are the people that follow like sheep.

Scientology is another extremely strange and bizarre organisation but they all fall under charity so are actually rolling in it tax free.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Wow, didn’t know all that backstory, OP! :eek: The headlines don’t really indicate much beyond the norm for company closures. I really feel for all the employees.

aerburdz

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

Wow, didn’t know all that backstory, OP! :eek: The headlines don’t really indicate much beyond the norm for company closures. I really feel for all the employees.

You can be sure they don't feel for you.

BarryD2

Muahahaha wrote: »

Its a clusterfcuk of epic proportions that really lays bare the dangers of mixing religion, business and politics.

Be a lot of nervous politicians up there come the looming election. I'd think they'll be trying to run a mile from Wright Bus.

ohnonotgmail

Harry Palmr wrote: »

This is shocking but not surprising Evangelicals are famously mad, and rich on the back of gullible schmucks. Is the any evidence of money being syphoned off or was it accounted for in the books? If the latter then the accountants are the ones who needs to be sued.

No, it was all accounted for. I haven't seen anything to suggest they have done anything illegal. They are free to disperse company profits as they see fit

BarryD2

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

No, it was all accounted for. I haven't seen anything to suggest they have done anything illegal. They are free to disperse company profits as they see fit

Maybe, but if they had prudently retained these profits as a 'rainy day' fund, then the business might well still be trading??

punisher5112

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

No, it was all accounted for. I haven't seen anything to suggest they have done anything illegal. They are free to disperse company profits as they see fit

They were in trouble and he gave off £4.5 mill...

ohnonotgmail

punisher5112 wrote: »

They were in trouble and he gave off £4.5 mill...

he gave that money in 2017. were they in trouble then?

punisher5112

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

he gave that money in 2017. were they in trouble then?

They weren't in great shape.

Ferm001

Appears there was an offer to rescue the business, but Jeff Wright wanted £1M a year for use of the factory as it's owned by another of his companies.
Interested party decided against putting in offer.

humberklog

"The path of the WrightBus man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men..."

So that'd be the catholics and the EU.

banie01

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

No, it was all accounted for. I haven't seen anything to suggest they have done anything illegal. They are free to disperse company profits as they see fit

Whilst I'd agree 100% that the funds were all properly accounted for.
Where a disbursement of company funds results in a profit becoming a £1.2 million pound loss I'd seriously question the actual ethics and morality of the directors who signed off on said disbursement.

Where a company that has a viable order book, cannot continue trading as its "charitable donations" have put its accounts deep in the red, the actions of those who approved the donations even tho legal need to be called out for the recklessness they are.

That the action was legal, does not make it moral.
Which is quite ironic given where the money went.

ohnonotgmail

banie01 wrote: »

Whilst I'd agree 100% that the funds were all properly accounted for.
Where a disbursement of company funds results in a profit becoming a £1.2 million pound loss I'd seriously question the actual ethics and morality of the directors who signed off on said disbursement.

Where a company that has a viable order book, cannot continue trading as its "charitable donations" have put its accounts deep in the red, the actions of those who approved the donations even tho legal need to be called out for the recklessness they are.

That the action was legal, does not make it moral.
Which is quite ironic given where the money went.

I cannot disagree with any of that.