Rank wants to trash Lyminge Forest
The West Wood near Canterbury, in Kent, England, has been forest since time immemorial. It’s currently owned by the Forestry Commission (part of the Government) who manage the woodland for future generations. The forest is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is home to protected species such as badgers, nightjars and owls.
Rank want to buy nearly five hundred acres of this land and build an ‘Oasis Holiday Village’, including 350 ‘waterside villas’, 400 ‘forest lodges’, studio apartments, shops, restaurants, a nine-hole golf course, an indoor ‘water world’ and (of course) parking for four thousand cars.
This will destroy and enclose this ancient land, which at present is enjoyed for free by over one hundred thousand people every year. It will also ruin what is an area of archaeological significance, with three Celtic burial grounds, a Bronze Age site and the remains of a Roman Villa.
Rank’s pay structure stinks
In places like West Wood, Rank defends its actions by saying hundreds of jobs will be created, 700 in this case. Unfortunately, 89% of these will be low paid, menial work with little or no chance of responsibility or promotion.
The ‘jobs’ offered exactly match those at Butlins holiday camps, also owned by Rank; where the Low Pay Unit stated that the pay was “one of the meanest rates of pay we have ever heard of”.
Meanwhile, Rank’s chairman Sir Denys Henderson ‘earned’ £268,000 last year, while his chief executive Andrew Teare got by on a mere £386,000. These figures don’t include share options, company cars, an all the other perks directors get.
Sir Denys lives at Tree Tops, Eghams Close, Forty Green Road, Beaconsfield, Bucks, HP9, while Andrew Teare lives at Little Manor, Manor Road, West Adderbury, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX17 3EL.
Rank ‘denies’ trade unions
When Rank acquired the Mecca bingo hall chain, the trade union BECTU went on a recruitment drive, sending letters to managers and staff.
If some of the managers of these bingo halls were against trade unions for some reason (like collective representation), they’d put the recruitment literature in the bin, so BECTU wouldn’t recruit anybody.
Meanwhile, if managers were reasonably enlightened and didn’t mind their staff working together, BECTU would get a few dozen new members from each bingo hall.
Amazingly enough, this is exactly what happened - BECTU got scores of new members from some bingo halls, and none at all from others.
Surely managers aren’t deliberately thwarting BECTU’s perfectly legitimate attempts to recruit?
Rank’s in really deep financial trouble
Rank’s having to buy £310 million-worth of its own shares to try to protect itself from hostile invaders circling the troubled group. Still, at least the shares were cheap - Rank’s share price has been plummeting recently as the profit figures have been ‘very disappointing’.
Poor old Andrew Teare (he of the £386,000 pay package) has been described as ‘living on borrowed time’ as Rank is basically not performing at all well.
And at least one set of corporate financiers has put together an imaginative set of documents showing how to take over and smash the Rank Group plc. With any luck, any potential corporate raider might choose not to go ahead with the Lyminge project...
Contacts
The Rank Group plc, 6 Connaught Place, London W2 2EZ; 0171 706 1111
Greensword, The Spout House, Lympne, Kent CT21 4LQ; 01303 265737
Flat Oak Society 3 St Alphege Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT21 8DJ; 01227 463368
Friends of Lyminge Forest, Cloverland, Loughborough Lane, Lyminge, Folkestone, Kent CT18 8DJ; 01303 862772
Lyminge Forest camp mobile 0410 536592
Low Pay Unit : 0171 713 7616
Rank’s Other Holdings
Butlins, Top Rank, Mecca, Odeon cinemas, the Hard Rock Cafe chain, Shearings, Warners, Haven Holidays.
What’s Wrong With RANK...