{"id":124038,"date":"2025-11-06T00:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/124038\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T00:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:18:07","slug":"fastway-fallout-financially-this-is-crippling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/124038\/","title":{"rendered":"Fastway fallout: ‘Financially, this is crippling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The collapse of delivery firm Fastway has left workers and drivers owed millions of euro and hundreds of small firms left scrambling to find other ways to move their stock ahead of Christmas.<\/p>\n

Nuvion Group, the parent company of Fastway and Parcel Direct, went into receivership last week, with 300 workers directly affected, and close to 700 subcontractors and franchise delivery workers left in limbo.<\/p>\n

Fastway handled 25m parcels annually. Logistically, there are huge fears other delivery companies won\u2019t be able to accommodate thousands of customers seeking order fulfilment ahead of \u2018Black Friday\u2019 and Christmas.<\/p>\n

Just two years ago, Fastway invested \u20ac5m in its depot in Little Island in Cork, the second largest courier base in the country, while it opened a 120,000sq ft facility, in Greenogue Business Park in Rathcoole, Co Dublin.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, one Fastway franchisee working out of Greenogue told the Irish Examiner he is at a loss of up to \u20ac250,000, and he had to sell an 18-tonne truck to pay his own staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had two franchises with Fastway, one independently and one with a colleague,\u201d said Stephen Quigley from Navan. \u201cFinancially, this is crippling. With the loss of what I invested – franchises, eight weeks of wages between my employees, what I pay for the delivery runs – I\u2019m down \u20ac200,000 to \u20ac250,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Quigley had five staff working under him. Two have been let go while he is stuggling to keep the others employed. \u201cI had one 18-tonne truck which I had to sell for cashflow to pay them. The knock-on effect for customers is going to be massive. No one is going to be able to pick up the slack from Fastway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fastway\u2019s direct employees say they must await a 30-day consultation period before claims can be made to the State\u2019s insolvency payments scheme. Contractors and drivers, meanwhile must apply directly for State support as they were not considered Fastway employees.<\/p>\n

Third party businesses are also badly affected. Packaging firm Box Depot based in Kylemore Industrial Estate in Dublin provides packaging solutions like eco-friendly boxes and bubble wrap, used for everything from hampers to house moves. Company founder Jerry Reidy has refunded customers whose orders he can\u2019t fulfil as he seeks alternative delivery methods but said the future of the company now looks bleak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to lay off two staff on Friday as I couldn\u2019t guarantee they\u2019d have any work,\u201d said Mr Reidy. \u201cI also had to stop taking orders online. I had an order from Kerry and had no way to get it down. I have been doing deliveries myself around Dublin but outside Dublin, I can\u2019t get it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know when I will be able to get back up and running. I have customers who do hampers and gifts, and this time of year is when they do most of their orders. Now, they are being told at the start of November \u2018you can\u2019t do any business\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Reidy said Fastway was the courier of choice for many small businesses as they accepted \u201cnon-conveyable\u201d goods \u2013 parcels of irregular sizes \u2013 and allowed firms to pre-purchase delivery labels online.<\/p>\n

ISME chief executive Neil McDonnell, representing small and medium enterprises, said it has been contacted by \u201cdistressed\u201d business owners.<\/p>\n

Interpath, the receivers of Nuvion, continues to seek a buyer for the firm, while around 50,000 items were brought to a warehouse in Portarlington to be sorted. That process is expected to take two weeks. Among the items salvaged so far was a wedding dress.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Ireland held a \u2018rapid response\u2019 recruitment open day at the Maldron in Portlaoise, located between the two largest Fastway depots: Cork and Dublin.<\/p>\n

ISME called on the receivers to take immediate steps to ensure that goods currently in transit are either delivered to buyers or returned to vendors without delay.<\/p>\n

ISME said it has received a huge number of reports from affected businesses across Ireland, including both members and non-members, who do not have clarity as to the status of goods entrusted to the courier service.<\/p>\n

Mr McDonnell said: \u201cPracticable steps must be taken to protect innocent third parties. These goods belong to small businesses that are already operating under extreme cost pressures. Resolution of this issue months from now will be far too late for many and could threaten their viability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The collapse of delivery firm Fastway has left workers and drivers owed millions of euro and hundreds of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,8531],"class_list":["post-124038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-munster-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}