Alfred Sargent - GONE!

Originally Posted by upnorth

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If they are holding a liquidation sale of their existing stock, please could someone update.

Classic SF.

This is all the fault of SFers who only buy C&J made Peal shoes.

Originally Posted by AnGeLiCbOrIs

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This is all the fault of SFers who only buy C&J made Peal shoes.

I bet only few people discern the difference between the two.I do have a pair of AS made Peal shoes and they are very nice,I am not sure what the quality of their calf shoes is,mine is suede but I like it and it is on par with C&J.
Anyways,how do we find out about AS liquidation sale?

Originally Posted by forex

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Anyways,how do we find out about AS liquidation sale?

Pretty sure this is true. I was in one of the other factories in Northampton a couple of weeks ago and it was all they were talking about. Very sad indeed, and I think it's just the tip of the iceberg.

nevermind.

U.K. banks hit by consumer defaults - WSJ

WSJ reports U.K. banks grappling with frozen credit markets and mortgage defaults are facing a new threat to their bottom lines: consumers unable to pay off credit-card bills and personal loans. As the U.K. economy heads into a steep downturn, Britons, among the world's most indebted consumers, are increasingly struggling to make ends meet. Personal insolvencies rose 8.8% to 27,087 in England and Wales in the third quarter from the second quarter. One in six U.K. consumers say they can't handle their debts, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers poll. Debt-counseling centers are seeing record call volumes. That's bad news for the biggest players in the U.K.'s consumer-lending market, such as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Barclays (BCS), Bank of America's (BAC) MBNA and HSBC Holdings (HBC). As of October, lenders had $348 billion of credit-card, personal and overdraft loans outstanding to U.K. customers, up 5.5% from the previous year.

See what President Carter started

Originally Posted by NorCal_1

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U.K. banks hit by consumer defaults - WSJ

WSJ reports U.K. banks grappling with frozen credit markets and mortgage defaults are facing a new threat to their bottom lines: consumers unable to pay off credit-card bills and personal loans. As the U.K. economy heads into a steep downturn, Britons, among the world's most indebted consumers, are increasingly struggling to make ends meet. Personal insolvencies rose 8.8% to 27,087 in England and Wales in the third quarter from the second quarter. One in six U.K. consumers say they can't handle their debts, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers poll. Debt-counseling centers are seeing record call volumes. That's bad news for the biggest players in the U.K.'s consumer-lending market, such as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Barclays (BCS), Bank of America's (BAC) MBNA and HSBC Holdings (HBC). As of October, lenders had $348 billion of credit-card, personal and overdraft loans outstanding to U.K. customers, up 5.5% from the previous year.

I don't think that's the problem - their sales in the UK are a small proportion of their total sales.

http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/No...ers.4754073.jp this is absolutely TRAGIC I can't express how much I appreciate Sargent. They are one of the great solid English brands and have so much history. Wouldn't Brooks Brothers want to give them a hand? They have less than a hundred employees, the margin which they missed to have to shut down can't be that large.

I just picked up a pair of patent lace-ups from BB. I can't decide who made them.

I bought my first pair of AS from Pediwear in 2003 and have owned 4 pairs since then. They are of great value - 10% discount and free shipping from Pediwear.

This is sad...

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/No...ers.4754073.jp

this is absolutely

TRAGIC

I can't express how much I appreciate Sargent. They are one of the great solid English brands and have so much history. Wouldn't Brooks Brothers want to give them a hand? They have less than a hundred employees, the margin which they missed to have to shut down can't be that large.

maybe will get lucky and Brooks will pull another Southwick? Doubtful.

I asked Tony G for an update, and this is what he wrote:

I was in Sargent yesterday and they were working normally so they have definitely not gone bust, I still do some design work for them.

They did however make quite a few employees redundant last week (which is where these rumours come from, I think) and from what I understand not as a result of the economy downturn but with the intention of focusing on a smaller high grade production.

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looking foward to updates as the week goes