Stolen Cheese.

very sad and surprising story, that 22 tons , or 950 wheels of Cheddar. That’s a hard hit.
Thats not opportunist theft. That is targeted , carefully planned.

The theory is Russians are behind it sanctions starting to hurt.
The list of potenial goods must be long.

i remember how , the time i went to St Petersburg, I wondered how many Ladas I would see
only to be shocked at the number of BMWs. Spare car parts, Tyres…..must be having a big impact on these too.
 
very sad and surprising story, that 22 tons , or 950 wheels of Cheddar. That’s a hard hit.
Thats not opportunist theft. That is targeted , carefully planned.

The theory is Russians are behind it sanctions starting to hurt.
The list of potenial goods must be long.

i remember how , the time i went to St Petersburg, I wondered how many Ladas I would see
only to be shocked at the number of BMWs. Spare car parts, Tyres…..must be having a big impact on these too.
I read an interesting twitter thread a few months back where someone pointed out that where the export of goods to Russia had dropped off, the export to countries immediately surrounding Russia had increased to a similar level. I'm not sure all the sanctions are having quite the impact anticipated.
 
There’s an article in today’s Times by a producer of smoked salmon setting out how he was swindled out of four tonnes of product worth around £37,500 last month in circumstances similar to the Neal’s Yard incident.
 
A bouncing cheque, or just delivery on credit?
Sounds like it's sent on credit. I guess that must be normal in their business.
It's the norm in most of the food and wine industry. Producers are expected to extend credit to wholesalers who extend it to retailers and restaurants. When a restaurant forecloses, it usually leaves lots of suppliers out of pocket, even though the owners are protected by Ltd Company rules. Alongside fraudsters, restauranteurs are the bad eggs of the wine trade.

I get an email every fortnight from someone pretending to be a supermarket buyer, importer, wholesaler or restaurant chain. I'm not a particularly big or famous wine producer. I'm surprised Neal's Yard duped. The fraudsters must have been very professional.
 
It's the norm in most of the food and wine industry. Producers are expected to extend credit to wholesalers who extend it to retailers and restaurants. When a restaurant forecloses, it usually leaves lots of suppliers out of pocket, even though the owners are protected by Ltd Company rules. Alongside fraudsters, restauranteurs are the bad eggs of the wine trade.

I get an email every fortnight from someone pretending to be a supermarket buyer, importer, wholesaler or restaurant chain. I'm not a particularly big or famous wine producer. I'm surprised Neal's Yard duped. The fraudsters must have been very professional.
Do you have to give credit then? I'd want to be very sure I knew who I was dealing with. Maybe wait until they'd established a history of paying. So many companies going bust these days.
 
Do you have to give credit then? I'd want to be very sure I knew who I was dealing with. Maybe wait until they'd established a history of paying. So many companies going bust these days.
Every producer and distributor I’ve worked with (or at least 90% of them) asks for the first order to be paid up front.

At least they write it on the invoice so I’ve always paid.
 
Do you have to give credit then? I'd want to be very sure I knew who I was dealing with. Maybe wait until they'd established a history of paying. So many companies going bust these days.
In many cases yes we do have to give credit terms. Some new small businesses will offer to pay on the nose for the first order but once you start talking to larger companies (which you do if you want to sell pallets instead of cases) they will demand 30, 60 or even 90 days credit. Unless you have a wine that they can't do without (which is rare) they will just find another producer who agrees to their terms.
 
Presumably in this case, the supposed wholesaler was no such thing. Would it be too difficult to get an official reference from a known client of theirs (eg. E.Leclerc or whoever)? Or maybe it's just a case of once bitten, twice shy, and this is the first time any such thing has happened.
 
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