EVCL Chill filed for administration today (Friday 24 September).
EVCL Chill had contracts for supermarkets including Asda and Sainsbury’s and employed around 1,000 workers in warehousing and HGV driving roles.
Asda and Sainsbury’s are reported to have been talking to the administrator PwC for several weeks in a bid to safeguard short-life chilled operations. The supermarkets are expected to take in-house the logistics previously provided by EVCL Chill.
Neither the supermarkets, EVCL Chill or PwC has commented publicly on the issue.
EVCL Chill is essentially the former NFT Distribution business that was placed into administration by its parent EV Cargo in January 2020. This led to the creation of a new business called EV Cargo Logistics, which included the core operations at 10 depots in England and Wales. The business changed its name to EVCL Chill earlier this month.
EVCL Chill’s parent, EV Cargo UK, which is not affected, is owned by private equity investor Emergevest.
Trade union Unite is scathing about the business model followed by EV. Unite believes that EVCL Chill’s collapse into administration is a direct result of the parent company seeking to maximise short term returns at the expense of the investment needed to secure it’s long-term future.
Unite says that as a separate company, Emergevest will avoid picking up the cost of the collapse of EVCL Chill, which will have to be met by the taxpayer.
Unite, which had over 500 members at the company, is seeking to ensure that the workers employed directly on the Asda and Sainsbury’s contract will be protected by Transfer of Undertakings if transferring to the supermarkets. It is hoped some workers not covered by TUPE will be found jobs within the Asda operation.
Unite national officer Matt Draper said: “The collapse [of EVCL Chill]… calls into question the role and involvement of venture capitalists in UK industry.
“There is something fundamentally wrong in a system which allows the wealthy owners of a company to avoid paying for its collapse while the taxpayer has to pick up the pieces.
This story has been corrected since posting earlier today. The intial story referred to EV Cargo and should have identified EVCL Chill, the only part of the business that has entered admijnistration. EV Cargo and its other businesses are not affected .
