Framing Essentials - Ceased Trading

[GeoSpectrum]

I've just had a message on the awnser phone from Kate at Framing Essentials in Lincoln to say they have ceased trading. A great shame, but a sign of the times perhaps?

[Jonny2morsos]

I think they were always up against it. I used to buy a bit from them but as they did not do credit accounts it was only odds and ends.

[Graysalchemy]

Sad to hear that.

It sad to think that 3 years ago Mitrecraft was a thriving business which itself went to the wall, and that some of them set up framing essentials which to has now had to close.

I wish them all the very best.

[prospero]

Great shame.

They could have been very handy for me as they were only ten miles away. Having said that, they only stocked a few things that I actually needed regularly. Most of the mouldings they had were poly. And I don't seem to use much glass or mountboard nowadays....

[Steve Goodall]

Sad News - The other week it was Picture Links & now Framing Essentials...

[IFGL]

I had an email saying they had moved, and I noticed the name had changed. I can,t for the life of me remember what to though,

[IFGL]

Found it,
The frame room 01522522656 if anyone is intrested.

[impressive19]

I used them but their stock became less and less. Friendly but no stock.....shame, local company born out of Mitrecraft.

[impressive19]

Found it,
The frame room 01522522656 if anyone is intrested.

That was the framing side of the business, I guess the big boys will pick up their customers now!

[JamesC]

A shame - pretty sure the frame room is the part of their business that did contract or complex framing for smaller framers. Maybe they will focus on that now.

Reducing wholesale competition cannot generally be good for the framer I feel.

Mitrecraft was a funny one and maybe if things had happened in a slightly different order then it would have been ok but I can only observe and go from what drivers told me etc. They seemed to try to modernise/computerise a solid but old fashioned business too quickly without getting the right people in on customer service, then when they did it was too late and many customers had already switched. I just caught the tail end of Mitrecraft when we started using them.

I might be wrong. It just shows how tough it is out there in business at the moment.

Wish them all the best in the future.

[prospero]

Re. Mitrcraft. I knew the Greens since they had a retail shop in Lincoln. (Still got their OPEN/CLOSE sign. )They were just starting up on the wholesale side. I remember the first time Ivan came round to see me in an Allegro estate with a few packs of mountboard in the back and a few sundries..... Over the years I watched the business grow with a few changes in address on the way. When they sold up they had a very well appointed warehouse. I wasn't privy the any family politics, but but the upshot was Ivan and his family emigrated to Australia. I bought a huge stack of his accumulated surplus moulding which will last me a while.

I think to be in wholesaling you need a big cushion of capital in order to ride out the slack periods. FE did glass, which is a cut-throat end of the trade. Not a lot of profit to be made, but it's something you have to offer if the other guy does. All in all you have to shift a big volume of stuff to make it pay. You have to carry a big selection of stock. Fair do's to FE, but they didn't have hardly a single moulding that I would use an a regular basis. A few odds'n' sods here and there.....

All the best to all at FE for at least having a go and all the best for the future.