Unsafe Deposit

by J. E. Kellenberger

  The pleasantries over Rolf immediately fired the salvo that shunted Alan from the mainstream into a secondary role leading a new in-house R & D department. Rolf made it clear that as he was the majority shareholder there would be no way back for Alan. Alan’s family had primed him on how to behave when told he was being sidelined. They had had a test run to show real surprise, feigned disappointment, a modicum of hurt all wrapped up with a dollop of annoyance and, of course, pretend loyalty to the new regime. Ella had rehearsed him several times to get just the right amount of credibility into his voice and facial expressions as she had warned him that he only had one chance to get it right. It would have to be an Oscar-winning performance as he had to convince them that he would continue to work loyally for WareWork despite them stabbing him in the back! He would definitely get it right, he had told Ella since he was determined that Rolf would pay a heavy price for his ruthlessness.

  ‘How did it go?’ Ella asked Alan immediately when he returned home. ‘I didn’t dare ring your mobile just in case you were still in the meeting.’

  ‘Well, I think it went pretty well really. I remembered to do all the things you taught me and I kept my emotions in check all the time,’ he replied.

  ‘So what did Rolf offer you?’

  ‘He effectively pushed me into touch by creating a new section out of a few employees gathered from different departments and calling it Research and Development! I am to head it up and report to the board as its director.’

  ‘Are you feeling really pissed off?’ Ella enquired gently.

  ‘Yes, and hurt as well,’ sighed Alan. ‘When I think of all the harmonious years working with Max and the happy relationship we enjoyed no sooner has he gone than his son tears it all apart. He doesn’t care about people. All he cares about is letting you know that he is the boss.’

  ‘He’ll come to regret it,’ she assured her husband.

  ‘To be in this position where you have to make your own justice is awful and I hate it but he’s reneged on a commitment his father made and he’ll deserve any rough justice that we mete out. And I think Rolf has made his first mistake,’ he said, continuing. ‘R & D has got to mean trips abroad to investigate new methods and tooling and all the rest and I’m sure I shall be able to find plenty of spare time to investigate suppliers for the Gadd family business. And what’s more we won’t have to pay our own travel expenses!’

  That evening they sat down to discuss the best products to sell. What they knew they had to do was to manufacture a small range of products, those that were essential to an organisation, those that sold in large volumes and those that would undercut WareWork. They eventually came up with five staples: a white lab coat, a unisex cuisine chef’s jacket in white or black, a heavy-duty cotton dungaree, a button-through boiler suit and a tunic for hospital staff. They had all agreed on the company name of AseaWear Ltd, arrived at from the initial of their four first names. The website address was to be www.goodworkclothes.co.uk. They hoped it implied to potential purchasers that their products were the best value available in the market place while being of a very decent quality. ‘However low the price, we must ensure that the quality is acceptable and our service exceptional. Our profit margins will need to be low so we shall have to sell in bulk,’ Alan reminded everyone. Ella, under her maiden name of King, was registered as the sole director of the private limited company they had set up and their plan was put into action when Alan flew off to a trade show of textile knitting machines in Korea having ensured that his flight ticket allowed for a stopover in Singapore where he had an associate in the same line of business who would know all the most economic but reliable textile production firms to approach for new business in south-east Asia.

  From a slow but steady start the new company established its presence in the online marketplace and started to fulfil the promise that Adam had predicted. It had taken almost six months before Alan had found and committed Asea to a manufacturing company in Bangladesh. Alan had been impressed by its young hands-on owner and the orderliness of the factory floor. As many samples as the Gadds could fund prudently were ordered and after some hiccups with sizing and quality they were soon ready to be professionally photographed and displayed on the website. They employed the services of a company to optimise their position so that their name would appear more prominently in a search for working and corporate clothing. But their very first move was to send a flyer by post to every company Alan considered as a possible customer.

  The early days were dogged by enquiries for samples and colour charts and lead times but no orders and while it was heartening to receive this feedback from the website it was also a period during which they fretted about their lack of working capital as no money was coming in. They had pared down the price of their products to yield a workable and sustainable net profit but one which would undercut WareWork by at least twenty percent on a like-for-like basis. As they waited impatiently for definite orders to come in they questioned whether they had pitched their prices too low and caused customers to query the quality of their goods so it had been with plain relief that they received their first online order for a large quantity of dungarees in standard brown, a breakthrough instruction from a ship-building company in Poland which had recently been commissioned to build a new cruise liner. Alan made the terrible pun that it would be all hands on deck to ensure that the products were manufactured and delivered to the customer according to their online promises. When two smaller but substantial orders were received the Gadds guessed correctly that their online business could and would succeed. The question that still remained was whether it could dent the profits of WareWork because first and foremost success for the Gadd family was measured in revenge.

  In his ninety-first year Max died in hospital. He had been a widower for more than a decade and although his death certificate stated that his death was due to a chest infection it would have been much closer to the truth if it had stated that his will to continue simply ran out. He had been fully retired for several years and although he enjoyed the frequent visits of his four grandchildren nothing really replaced his love of commerce. It had been central to him all his life. He died a wealthy man but one well aware until his very last moments that discord remained between his children.

  If anything Rolf had rather taken his eye off the ball since his elevation to CEO, that and the death of his father had somehow quelled his need to feel in total command of WareWork. His position at the head of the firm brought a sense of fulfilment and he wasn’t prone to looking back on his ruthlessness towards Alan Gadd. Moreover his sister too was showing signs of a more laissez-faire approach to work, but the siblings were beginning to miss vital business signs: technological advances, changing consumer habits, management account trends. Alan Gadd wasn’t going to lose any sleep worrying about their insouciance which left just the bank’s man, Marian Bowden, and the other Alan to notice the obvious which was that WareWork wasn’t keeping pace with its rivals. Rolf didn’t question the other Alan’s curtailed explanation of the graphs and pie charts he produced but he should have. It was left to Marian to recognise the situation and to grasp the nettle. She warned them that habits in commerce were changing fast and that unless they applied themselves to the new order very quickly their business would be left behind and the niche that they had carved for themselves in clothing over two decades would be lost. She made a final plea to the other board members to see the dangers lurking ahead and was somewhat grudgingly allowed to investigate further. She would look into the situation in an ordered and meticulous way; divide and conquer was her creed and she would look at all aspects of the business. When she did delve in she found that the management accounts that Alan Carter had handed out were not as comprehensive as they should have been and unless they reacted quickly to market changes they would be in serious trouble. They needed to embrace online technology and constantly monitor their product lines and compare prices with others in
the market place as she had found that some competitors were undercutting them by staggering amounts. She drew up a plan to present to the board at the next meeting showing what she considered to be the necessary road ahead. She realised that she would have to be tactful and keep a tight rein on her natural forthright instinct but she had to make them recognise the importance of management accounts and that these numbers were the backbone of good decision-making.

  When Rolf convened the next meeting he was in for a shock. After dealing with standard items on the agenda Alan Gadd reported on his R & D trip to the Far East to inspect new machinery using the latest robotic aids. Andreé and Alan Carter spoke briefly before Rolf invited Marian to present her report. She strode over to the easel on which she had placed a prepared flip chart and proceeded to go through each item pointing out weaknesses and strengths and showing what materials were being used by their competitors and where globally the products were being manufactured. On a second chart she had listed the price points of their competitors’ products with a column showing the percentage by which they were undercutting WareWork. Regaining her seat around the table she went on to mention a certain website that she believed was their greatest challenger as it seemed to be targeting their core products. It was titled “goodworkclothes.co.uk” and a google search of the company behind the website had elicited the name of AseaWear Ltd.

  ‘Would you like me to continue further on this particular subject Chairman?’ she asked Rolf.

  ‘Go ahead please,’ he instructed.

  ‘Well a search of the register at Companies House lists the sole director of Asea as Ella Elisabeth King and a search of that name informs you that this lady is an artist and that her married surname is Gadd!’

  Following the resignation and departure of Alan Gadd from not just the board of directors but also from the company itself questions were raised in the financial press regarding the position of WareWork in the clothing industry. Rumours began to emerge about internecine disputes amongst the board members themselves since the departure of the co-founder and longstanding CEO Max Berghoff. Fingers were pointed at the swift and unscheduled departure of its other co-founder Alan Gadd and the question was asked “did he jump or was he pushed?” There was also speculation about nepotism as the new CEO’s sister had been promoted to the board and in the wings, waiting, was a third Berghoff, Daniel, nephew of Rolf.

  Rolf shouldn’t have been stunned by Alan Gadd’s extra-curricular activities but he was. He called it treachery in the milieu of the boardroom but his sister wasted no time on sympathy for this view and made it clear to Rolf that he was the architect of this situation. In plain words she told him he got what he deserved for reneging on his father’s promise to Alan. Now it was time to pick up the pieces, show solidarity to the press and keep their mouths shut about past misdemeanours. The way forward was concentration on the job in hand with the complacency of recent times being replaced with positive action.

  ‘Rolf,’ she said, looking at him directly when they were alone, ‘we must leave the past behind and build a more ethical future by working as a team for the good not just of our family but, more importantly, of the company. I think we should appoint Marian as our company secretary. The financial analysts will like this move and Marian has already shown us that she has a cutting edge worthy of nurturing.’ She went on, ‘Alan Carter needs a mighty shake up and when the share price steadies and we begin to improve our financial status we should promote Daniel to the board.’

  Rolf’s answer was swift.

  ‘I agree. I’ll deal with the other Alan, you deal with Marian.’

  The next board meeting discussed the entrails of Alan G’s ignominious exit. The other Alan and the bank man, apart from his predictable interest in the repayment of the next instalment of the bank loan, had little to say on the momentous goings-on of the previous meeting. Rolf and Andreé were tight-lipped when Marian further exposed how much damage Alan G had caused to WareWork’s sales figures and she also believed that he had deliberately undercut their core products. She felt the level of deceit was such that he should be reported to the financial ombudsman as being unfit to hold a company directorship and that even the Fraud Squad might need to be called in. In a very authoritative tone Rolf told her that past matters were past, sleeping dogs would be allowed to lie and that WareWork would move forward. Marian guessed, quite rightly, that there was much more to this saga than she had been told. But she didn’t dislike Rolf or Andreé and she loved her job and she would button her lip.

  ‘Right,’ she said to no one in particular, ‘in that case can I suggest that the first thing we move forward on is online selling.’

  There was unanimous agreement to the suggestion of setting up a specialist team for this purpose. As soon as it was operational they would make an appropriate press release and the shareholders would learn that the company was moving on into, hopefully, calmer waters.

  ‘And I think we should put Daniel in charge of the business in Switzerland,’ she added.

  ‘Good move,’ said Rolf.

  Dear Alan,

  Please find enclosed a letter to you that I inadvertently read when our company post section opened it and directed it to me.

  As you can see from the sticky note it is marked for the attention of Alan C. When I read it I realised that it should be for you and not for me.

  I apologise for the error made at this end but there is as I had often said in the past just a small horizontal stroke separating us!

  Yours sincerely, Alan Carter, Director, WareWork.

  Dear Alan,

  Following your visit to our factory on 3rd March when we were pleased to show you our latest textile weaving machines, we are delighted to enclose detailed specifications, prices and installation timings.

  On the other matter of the brand new machine which had been custom-manufactured by us and then became the subject of a liquidation order, we can now offer it to your associate Amir Khan of Binglar Manufacturing in Bangladesh at a fifty percent discount for delivery within a 56-day period on full payment.

  Yours faithfully, K. Norman, Senior Manager, Ammix Machinery, Chicago, Illinois.

  ‘Up until now Rolf had nothing on me,’ Alan said to Ella, showing her the two letters.

  ‘Well you hadn’t done anything wrong, that’s why,’ she remarked.

  ‘But I have now,’ he answered back.

  ‘No you haven’t,’ she insisted, ‘you have done nothing legally wrong. Morally, yes maybe, but legally definitely not. And you were provoked.’

  ‘Well, whichever the case, Rolf has something on me now as you can bet your bottom dollar that the other Alan has shown him the letter from Chicago. The whole board will now know that I only went through the motions on R & D trips for WareWork when I was really working for us.’

  ‘In that case you have all the more reason to keep the private investigator on Rolf’s heels. For every card Rolf holds against you, we need a card to hold against him, and something more than just offshore banking. Let’s hope that Paul Rocheford is good at his job!’

  ‘I hate this deception, it makes me feel so unclean,’ stated Alan, as if the stating of the actual words would expunge some of the contamination.

  ***

  A get-together with Tommy put Rolf in a very much better frame of mind. It would solve a problem Rolf had been mulling over and to which he had failed thus far to find a satisfactory answer, what to do with the pouch? His school-days friendship with Tommy had stood the test of time, it had not petered out when their illegal money-making adventures had ceased. There was now no need to be on the wrong side of the law as Rolf’s equities had blossomed with the succession of bull markets in the nineties and his salary and director bonuses were generous. For Tommy the position was equally good. He had prospered, if not grown affluent, as the ordinary man in the street had spare cash in his pocket
and was upgrading his “motor” to classier Marques. They met as often as they could. Sometimes they would pick a spot and both drive there for lunch or every so often they would spend a day out fishing as they had done so many times in the past and the truthful exchange of inner thoughts was just as easy as it had always been.

  ‘I think I might have found a neat way out of the pouch problem,’ Tommy said, munching on a supermarket sandwich which he took out of the bag containing his fishing gear. They were squatting on stools along a canal bank on an overcast Sunday afternoon, lines deployed waiting for a bite.