Public sector VAR Northgate Information Solutions has been entered into the Federation of Private Business’s (FPB’s) Hall of Shame for its “poor payment practices”.

Northgate wrote to suppliers last month informing them that, from July, it will be taking 60 days to settle invoices. They were given 10 working days to object.

The FPB branded the move “disappointing”, claiming it will hit some of Northgate’s smaller suppliers.

Northgate has now been added to the FPB’s Hall of Shame, which already features corporate reseller Computacenter and high street giants such as Matalan and Argos.

One anonymous FPB member, who has seen his business payment terms doubled from 30 days by the move, expressed concern that large companies are bullying their smaller suppliers.

“I would be delighted if public opinion turned against this kind of behaviour before it’s too late,” they said. “Quite clearly, firms that have previously relied on credit from their banks are now relying on being paid promptly and will suffer greatly if they are not.

“The problem is that bigger companies have the muscle to be able to do this, whereas smaller suppliers have little bargaining power. We’re all in this together; they should get their finger out and stop this kind of behaviour.”

Northgate said in the letter that the 60-day timeframe was being introduced to ‘standardise’ payment terms across its supply base.

In response to the FPB’s move Northgate added that its own customers had extended payment terms recently and that it had had to pass on the arrangement to suppliers. It also stressed that suppliers had a choice of whether to accept the changes or not.

However, the FPB’s chief executive, Phil Orford, said: “Although we can sympathise with the company’s claim that it is not being paid on time by many of its public sector customers, it is disappointing that it is passing on these additional costs to its small suppliers, including members of the FPB.”

Orford added that the FPB had written to Northgate inviting it to sign up to the government’s Prompt Payment Code.

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Those thinking of entering the property market should wait until better deals are available for home loans, it has been argued.

Rightmove.co.uk recently found that seven out of ten potential homeowners think now is a good time to buy.

However, chief executive of Firstrung Paul Holmes noted that timing is crucial for first-time buyers.

He explained that taking out home loans while deposits of up to 40 per cent are being required is “crazy” and that decisions should be delayed.

“When they start offering mortgages with ten per cent deposits, freely available, that will tell a first-time buyer that the market has bottomed out,” he said, noting that banks ask for high deposits when they expect prices to fall.

The Rightmove.co.uk study also revealed that 57 per cent of those who are hoping to get on to the property ladder expect prices to be the same or higher by this time next year.

Bell Micro is one step closer to relisting on the stock market after completing another stage in its financial accounting restatement plans.

The distributor today filed its annual report for the years ended 31 December 2007 and 2008 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Turnover for 2008 stood at $3.6bn (£2.17bn), a drop of nine per cent from 2007 ($3.9bn), and net lossses stood at $74.8m due to goodwill impairments and professional fees in connection with accounting-related investigations and restatement. Net loss in 2007 was $72.1m.

Speaking to CRN, Graeme Watt, global distribution president at Bell Micro, said the firm is on track to file its first and second quarter 2009 financials by September.

“This means we will be current by September,” he said.

In the statement the company said its operating results have “improved dramatically” in 2009, having realised significant reductions in professional fees, goodwill impairments, other operating expenses and foreign exchange losses compared with 2008 levels.

Watt said the firm was “definitely through the worst” and can start to raise its head above the parapet and look at relisting.

“We are much leaner and fitter coming out of this now and the costs of this process are in pretty sharp decline. We can now throw all our energy into delivering a forward-looking strategy,” he said. “I would also like to take the opportunity to thank and recognise our extremely strong relationship with both banks and suppliers. This has been extremely important to us and will remain important going forward.

“We have been looking forward to this moment for quite a while,” he said.

Don Bell, chief executive of Bell, said in a statement: “We are pleased to have a difficult restatement and audit process and to return our attention to growing our business profitably. The process has been thorough, and we have made significant improvement to our financial controls and processes.

“We plan to resume our regular on time SEC Form 10-Q filing schedule in the third quarter. Coupled with being up to date on Q1 and Q2, this will take us one step closer to our goal of relisting on a national stock exchange. I would like to thank the many diligent Bell employees who have contributed to the resolution of these issues, and all of our employees for their continued execution during a challenging period.”

Looking forward, Bell said: “Bell Micro remains committed to its objective of being one of the leading suppliers of computing and storage systems, subsystems and components globally. We can now focus on executing our business plan and realising our company’s potential. Our focus on computing and storage solutions for the broad market, as well as selected vertical markets including medical, video, security and surveillance, and telecom, ideally positions us for future profitable growth. We remain committed to our goal of achieving two per cent pre-tax profits, and we will strive to achieve this objective in 2010.”

Autodesk has become the latest vendor to launch a finance programme for UK end users.

Autodesk Finance, which is being rolled out by leasing outfit Syscap, will provide finance for the full range of the CAD software vendor’s 80 products.

It is Autodesk’s first UK finance programme.

Syscap said the availability of leasing finance would help boost sales among Autodesk’s manufacturing and engineering client base.

Philip White, chief executive of Syscap, said: “Autodesk Finance will for the first time allow manufacturers to invest in new productivity enhancing technology without having to bear the entire cost upfront. This will mean that they can pay for the investment as they are deriving real cost saving benefits.”

The scheme will launch with a range of promotions, including introductory payment holidays and special low rates of finance.

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LONDON (ShareCast) - Bridgepoint, the private equity owner of Pets At Home, is said to have held preliminary talks with banks about a £700m flotation of the UK’s biggest pet products retailer.

The Sunday Times reported that Bridgepoint
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has held talks with Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - news) , JP Morgan Cazenove, NM Rothschild and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the past two weeks about the possible timing and valuation for a float.

However, no final decision has yet been made on whether the group will float or sell the business, according to the paper.

A float could trigger a windfall for its owners, who bought the pet products chain for £230m in 2004.

Pets at Home’s pre-tax profits were up 29% to to £39.9m in the last financial year.

Holidaymakers avoided a long delay to their flight home when a passenger fixed a mechanical problem with their plane.

Passengers on Thomas Cook flight TCX9641 from Menorca were told to expect an eight-hour wait while an engineer was flown out from the UK.

One passenger then identified himself as a qualified aircraft engineer and offered to try to remedy the fault.

He was successful, and the plane landed in Glasgow only 35 minutes late.

A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook said the company followed strict procedures to ensure the man was qualified to work on the aircraft, a Boeing 757-200, during the incident on Saturday.

The passenger worked for another airline, Thomsonfly, which has a reciprocal maintenance agreement with Thomas Cook.

It was reassuring to know the person who had fixed it was still on the aeroplane
Keith Lomax

“When they announced there was a technical problem he came forward and said who he was, ” she said.

“We checked his licence and verified he was who he said he was, and he was able to fix the problem to avoid the delay.

“We are very grateful that he was on the flight that day.”

Holidaymaker Keith Lomax, from Stirling, was travelling home from a week’s break with his wife when the plane’s captain announced the expected delay.

“We were in the plane, ready for take-off, when he announced there was a technical problem and that an engineer might have to be flown out from Manchester to fix it,” he said.

“Then a stewardess told us there was an engineer on board and they were checking out to see if he could work on it. He was obviously successful. When he came back onto the plane there was a round of applause from the back of the aircraft.

“It was reassuring to know the person who had fixed it was still on the aeroplane. What are the odds of something like that happening?”

A £1m permanent memorial to the victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings is to be unveiled in the city’s Hyde Park.

Fifty-two people were killed and hundreds more injured when suicide bombers detonated backpacks on board three Underground trains and a bus.

Families of those killed will gather later to see it publicly revealed.

Relatives who have seen the 52, 3.5m (11.5ft) tall stainless steel pillars - grouped to represent the attack sites - say they form a “fitting tribute”.

Architects Carmody Groarke wanted to convey the random nature of the loss of life - how it could have been anyone travelling in London that day.

Director Kevin Carmody said the firm worked closely with the families through monthly liaison meetings to ensure the finished product was what they required.

“It took a long time to get to the strong ideas like symbolising the single and collective loss of life,” he said.

Saba Mozakka examines the memorial
It’s an amazing tribute to my mum and the 51 others who were so viciously and brutally taken from us
Saba Mozakka

Families key to memorial design

He said 26 of the columns - known as stelae - were grouped to represent those killed on the Underground near King’s Cross.

Other clusters represented Tube bombing victims at Aldgate and Edgware Road, with the remainder symbolic of those who died on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square.

“Hopefully people will have an almost magnetic propulsion towards it,” said Mr Carmody.

He said it could be viewed from afar as a single entity but that as they moved closed, people would discover the significance of the four groupings and individual columns.

Though the stelae are anonymous, they are inscribed with the date, time and location of the bombings they represent.

“We’re very happy that the families are pleased with the result,” Mr Carmody added.

A representative of the bereaved families group said: “The memorial is a fitting tribute, honouring the 52 lives lost on 7 July 2005, ensuring that the world will never forget them.

“It represents the enormity of our loss, both on a personal and public level.

‘Horrific events’

“We hope this memorial will speak to visitors so they can understand the impact of these horrific events.”

It is located between the park’s Lover’s Walk and Park Lane.

Thanks to the open casting process used to make the columns, with molten stainless-steel being poured into sand moulds, each one has a unique finish.

Saba Mozakka, 28, from Finchley, north London, was one of six family members to sit on a liaison board during the memorial’s design.

Her mother, Behnaz Mozakka, 47, a biomedical officer, was killed on a Piccadilly line train near King’s Cross station while commuting to work.

Ms Mozakka described the memorial as “truly incredible”.

“I’m very happy. It’s very poignant,” she said.

“It’s an amazing tribute to my mum and the 51 others who were so viciously and brutally taken from us.”

Prince Charles and the Minister for London, Tessa Jowell, will address the unveiling ceremony on Tuesday, before the names of the victims are read out and a minute’s silence is observed.

The prince will then lay a wreath on behalf of the nation while the Duchess of Cornwall will leave a floral tribute for the families.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Conservative leader David Cameron, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, London Mayor Boris Johnson, former mayor Ken Livingstone and senior figures from the emergency services will also attend the event.

A British soldier has been killed in a helicopter accident in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The soldier, from 22 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, died alongside two Canadian troops when their aircraft crashed in Zabul province on Monday.

A safety investigation had already “determined that the crash did not occur as a result of enemy fire,” a Nato spokesman said.

The British soldier’s next of kin had been informed, the MoD said.

The soldier’s name has yet to be released. The Canadians who died have been named by Canadian media as Master Cpl Pat Audet and Cpl Martin Joannette.

A British military spokesman, Lt Col Nick Richardson, said: “Today has been a sad day in the history of Task Force Helmand and this death has deeply moved us.

“The loss of a soldier, friend and colleague is tragic and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time,” he added.

The soldier’s death takes the number of UK service personnel killed in Afghanistan since October 2001 to 175.

Earlier, the US military announced that seven soldiers had been killed in separate attacks across Afghanistan on Monday as they, along with Nato-led and Afghan forces, continued an operation to regain control of southern Helmand province from the Taliban.