Supply Chain Disappearing Suppliers

[whinmoor]

I thought it might be good to run a thread on the inevitable changes within the supply chain as the industry contracts. Some distributors are going to bite the dust so here's a space to share news. Hopefully none of us will end up paying in advance for kit and finding out a supplier has gone bust before delivering.

Interesting and somewhat bitter sounding statement here:

Solar Panel | Solar Photovoltaic | Immersun | Grid Tie Inverter

(In summary - because of "dishonest, uncaring and immoral people, Swithenbanks is no longer able to trade and is being forced into the hands of receivers.")

I wonder if this is a reference to the Government or actual players within the industry ?!?

 

[whinmoor]

Secondly, email received today from Ashadegreener looking to offload their kit:

"We have around 1500 Amerisolar 255w poly modules starting from 36.5p/w available in our warehouse based in Barnsley, South Yorkshire (see datasheet attached)."

I've already had a couple of CVs from former ASG employees who recently got made redundant.

 

[whinmoor]

Thirdly, Sungift's website isn't working:

http://www.sungifttrade.co.uk

Not sure what's going on there....

 

[SibertSolar]

Tough times ahead for all involved in the supply chain, for certain sectors.

 

[Worcester]

Kind of what I predicted back in September, wholesalers wanted empty warehouses come 1st Jan.

Those that are more international and have good business partnerships in the medium / large scale rooftop installers will still be around though slimmed down.

I expect to stay:
Krannich (slimmed down)
BayW r.e.
MidSummer
Wind and Sun

SunEdison has pulled out of the UK market and laid everyone off.

Dramatically slimmed down to skeleton staff (1 or 2 people) or disappearing
Waxman (the PV side)
Rexel
Segen
Alternergy
Solar Trade Sales

 

[Gavin A]

I suspect segen will still be ok because they've reduced their liabilities so far by cutting all the credit limits, so won't get hit too much by the bankruptcies, plus they've had higher margins for ages. £8 million net assets at the end of nov 2014, must be higher now, so they've got a fair old financial cushion.

 

[whinmoor]

Segen have recently started operations in Germany and South Africa. I guess those countries are using the same software system which is pretty advanced.

 

[SolarCity]

EH Smith have also run down their stocks. They're now getting kits in on demand only. A shame because they were the only firm that offered anything like a decent service.

 

[whinmoor]

EH Smith have also run down their stocks. They're now getting kits in on demand only. A shame because they were the only firm that offered anything like a decent service.

That makes sense if there's limited demand but doesn't help push down prices due to economies of scale. It sounds like PV is going back to being niche rather than mainstream.

 

[Worcester]

Yep, series of specialist suppliers / providers, though the likes of Waxman will probably reduce the operations so that they can still offer Biomass, Heatpumps as well as PV - i.e we end with specialist renewables suppliers rather than a large number of pv only ones.

 

[Gavin A]

rexel are currently insisting that they are staying in the PV game, however they have also run down stocking levels on panels, but not inverters etc - i think that was accidental as they didn't get a delivery of solarworld panels last week that they were expecting, it seemed to have gone to segen instead from what I could tell. Reckon they'll get that delivery after the cut now, which is probably solarworld playing games with rexel for ****ing them off.

 

[whinmoor]

Sungift told me they are cutting back resources on distribution to concentrate on installation. They've got the next couple of months booked up with pre-accredited commercial work.

Not that I'm nosey or anything.

 

[solarfred]

SEGEN are getting into the battery storage business! Already offering training courses in storage solutions but missing some of the latest technology!

 

[Worcester]

SEGEN are getting into the battery storage business! Already offering training courses in storage solutions but missing some of the latest technology!

If their training is anything like the GSE training they ran it's pretty worthless.

We're spending three days over the next couple of weeks one-one with different suppliers of battery storage solutions. - got all that booked in mid-december So should have their sales and technology angles well sewn up.

 

[SolarCity]

Storage - Do you really think it'll take off this year? Still can't see it personally.