A dog-eared pile of paper is all that remains of the once great Cuddy Group.

On Wednesday last week, I was awoken from my mid-morning slumber at my desk by the arrival of a hefty package that hit the mat at Demolition News Towers like a safe. That package contained a communication from Grant Thornton, the administrator appointed to divvy up what remains of the Cuddy Group.

Together with dozens of others, I had received a copy of this communication – 68 A4 pages, most printed front and back – because DemolitionNews was still owed money by the Cuddy Group as it slipped quietly beneath the surface a few weeks ago.

This then was the last will and testament of once great and much-respected company; a leader in its native Wales; a proving ground for huge numbers of demolition men and women that either stayed or who went on the ply their trade elsewhere within the industry.

Of course, the bitter irony of these administration letters is that they formally announce that most of those that actually provided goods and services well play second fiddle to two organisations that did not. In typical fashion, any money left over from the demise of Cuddy Group will go first to HMRC and then second to the administrator employed to dig over the fresh corpse of the recently deceased company.

The premature demise of the company put into jeopardy the first-ever British Demolition Awards at which Cuddy Group was scheduled to be a main sponsor. The fact that they were unwilling and unable to pay for that sponsorship as agreed rankled at the time, particularly as it was too late to get a replacement sponsor on board. But with the passage of time, my anger and irritation has dissipated. The British Demolition Awards were a huge success, regardless of Cuddy Group’s unforeseen absence. And besides, compared to the many people that lost their jobs and the various suppliers and sub-contractors that have been left to carry the financial can, DemolitionNews got off relatively lightly.

Yet the arrival of the weighty tome from Grant Thornton has given me pause for thought.

Obviously, my first thoughts are with the employees that have found themselves out of work through no fault of their own and – in some instances – after many years of dedication and hard work.
My thoughts are with the suppliers and sub-contractors that weren’t paid and who now face a hefty and even business-threatening deficit.

My thoughts are also with the Cuddy family. As is always the case in this situation, I have heard countless accounts of the reasons for Cuddy Group’s untimely demise. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned; but a disgruntled and angry former employee would run them a close second. But no-one sets out to run a company into the ground; and regardless of the financial implications of the company’s collapse, I am sure that every member of the Cuddy family will have felt this loss every bit as keenly as those they employed.

Ultimately, however, my thoughts are with the company itself. Cuddy Group and its various divisions accomplished so much over the years. They will have carried out literally hundreds of successful demolition contracts. They will have employed and trained thousands of men and women; men and women that would help nourish the UK demolition gene pool for many years to come. They will have contributed – directly or indirectly – to the financial well-being of immeasurable numbers of local suppliers, sub-contractors and equipment manufacturers and hirers. They helped raise the standards for demolition in their native Wales and beyond.

THAT should be the Cuddy Group legacy.

Yet all that remains is this single document. A once great company reduced to so many insincere words, a collection of clauses and sub-clauses, and sets of meaningless figures. Sixty-eight slightly dog-eared A4 pages, most of them printed front and back.

The workers, the family, the company and the industry deserved better.

Like what we have to say? Then leave us a tip.

If there is one thing that demolition men and women are good at, it is extracting maximum value from their work.

Whether they specialise in the demolition of tower blocks or toilet blocks, petrol stations or power stations, demolition folk are past-masters at squeezing every last drop of value from each and every contract. They are expert at identifying any works that have been carried out that weren’t contained within the contract agreement and that can subsequently be charged as an extra.
They are skilled at repurposing, recycling and reusing materials that others might view as waste.

All of which is good business sense. And extracting maximum value is something we have tried to embrace and apply here at Demolition News.Virtually everything we do carries some form of advertising or sponsorship to ensure that our time, efforts and energies are paid for; and that our readers, viewers and listeners get to enjoy our content free of charge.

But there are a few key areas of our activities where we are not extracting maximum value. And we’re about to start addressing those now.

On DemolitionNews, our primary goal is to keep readers up to date with developments in the field of demolition, whether that’s in the form of the written word, in audio form or as video.
However, we regularly intersperse the news with our own comment and opinion. And without wanting to blow my own trumpet, those opinions and comments are generally among the most read and are by far the most shared content on the whole of DemolitionNews.com. But there’s a problem when it comes to advertising and sponsorship.

You see, as regular readers will tell you, my comments are not always in keeping with the opinions of others. And I do not want my views and my opinions to reflect badly upon an advertiser that has been kind and generous enough to support us. So our comments started as advertising-free and will remain that way.

Yet, as I said previously, these articles, essays and commentaries are without question the most-read and most-shared words on the whole of DemolitionNews. They clearly have a value, however small.

And so, in future, we are going to be monetising these popular articles by what I can best describe as a tipping system.

About a year ago, we started to use a system called Patreon which allows our followers to make a small monthly contribution to the running of our various demolition-related activities in return for certain benefits like behind the scenes access, free magazine subscriptions and so on.

While I am not likely to be able to retire upon the proceeds, the funds raised through Patreon helped finance the purchase of a new microphone and audio recording system when we started Demolition News Radio. And for that, I am hugely grateful.

Well Patreon has a new service that allows anyone to make what they call a “Custom Pledge” from as little as a dollar. (And yes, all payments to Patreon are in dollars).
So henceforth, if you read a comment or opinion piece that really resonates with you; that you believe is worthy of sharing with others; and which you believe has an actual financial value –
You can choose to make a small financial contribution.

All of this resides over at patreon.com/demolitionnews. But to make life easier, all future opinion and comment pieces will end with a navy blue animated band that you can click (like the one at the foot of this comment piece). You can then hit the Custom Pledge option at the foot of the page, select a value of your choosing, and by the magic of ecommerce, some money will eventually find its way into our beleaguered coffers.

The tipping system is entirely voluntary. If you feel like leaving us a tip – however small – then we will be enormously grateful. If you can’t afford it, if you don’t believe this part of DemolitionNews’ output merits a tip, if you prefer not to pay for information, or if it goes against everything you stand for as a demolition person and a human, then we fully understand.
We will keep producing these articles regardless.

Thanks for your attention and thanks in advance if you choose to leave us a tip!

THIS ARTICLE IS AN EXTRACT FROM A LONGER AUDIO PODCAST – YOU CAN LISTEN TO THAT HERE.