Twisted Love and Money

by Kennedy, Thomas

  Dermot shook his head. “I don’t agree. I believe in Loyalty. Loyalty to the end. Michael is losing his head, lashing out. I won’t find it easy to forgive.”

  “Have you investigated what went wrong with our organic supplies?” John asked to take the emphasis off Michael.

  Dermot smiled, “Keeping a cool head John?”

  John laughed.

  “Now John,” Dermot continued, “I have been over it all. Personally I have not stopped working since I heard. I can tell you now. There is no fault I can find from our end. Not unless everyone is lying and the paperwork is rubbish.”

  “So Dermot you reckon the cock up is at the AF end?”

  “If there is a cock up,” Dermot said grimly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “To me this is enemy action. We must not be naive. We must think of a counter plan.”

  “I’m with you Dermot.” John agreed. “Will we go over the possibilities?”

  “Good,” Dermot said grimly, but with a friendly smile he added, “let’s talk it out together.”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “Come in, come in,” Crawford was effusive in his friendliness.

  Peter came hesitantly across the threshold into Crawford’s large office. Crawford’s eyes glinted as he saw the wide-eyed look on Peter’s face. The office was designed to impress the uneasy.

  “Peter O’Byrne, I am pleased to meet you.”

  Crawford shook his hand and led him towards the conference area. Crawford sat Peter in the low conference sofa. Crawford remained standing, forcing Peter to look up at him.

  “Coffee Peter?” Crawford offered warmly, moving towards the bar.

  “Please.” Peter was nervous and it took great effort for him to say the word in a relaxed manner.

  Crawford rummaged and came out with a tray. A sliver salver loaded with fine china. Not to mention some biscuits. He placed the load on the coffee table in front of Peter and carefully dispensed the coffee into the fine artistically designed cups.

  “Now Peter, let us address this unfortunate problem,” Crawford opened up the discussion.

  As he spoke he sat himself opposite Peter. Crawford’s sofa, although exactly the same in appearance as the others in the conference area, was hard based and he did not sink into the cushions. The result was that he remained above Peter’s line of vision and Peter continued to look up towards him.

  “Agreed, an unfortunate problem,” Peter began, “I came as soon as possible. My senior Director, James O’Driscoll, who has dealt with the AF companies for many years will be back from the middle East later on today. When he is fully briefed he will be directly in touch with you.”

  Crawford smiled. “Maybe we will get to the bottom of the problem ourselves Peter,” he said, confident, friendly in tone.

  “Hopefully,” Peter said agreeably.

  “Now,” Crawford continued, picking up his cup and saucer and walking around to the back of the sofa he had been sitting on, “Peter tell, have you got to the bottom of the problem with the O’Byrne Quality Control Procedures? How could so many consignments have slipped through?” Crawford’s voice was sympathetic.

  “We believe there was a mistake,” Peter explained.

  Crawford laughed. “Obviously, and an expensive mistake at your end Peter.”

  “No, no,” Peter protested.” the mistake was at your end, in AF.”

  “Really,” Crawford raised an eyebrow and his voice coldly rose as he said the word.

  “No, sorry, I am not attacking AF. Genuinely we have been through all our quality checks at O’Byrne’s and our sign offs. We cannot see where we could have made a mistake. We conclude that AF made a mistake at their end.”

  “This is very serious Peter.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “For a supplier to make an error is perhaps understandable,” Crawford said.

  “Although Peter, you do know we do operate on a right first time policy?”

  “Yes, yes,” Peter interjected, but before he could say more Crawford continued.

  “However,” he thundered. “When a supplier will not admit they could have got it wrong and in fact allege that we got it wrong at AF. That ...that’s a relationship at an end.”

  Peter gulped. The meeting was not going the way he had envisaged.

  “Mr. Crawford...? Sir,” he began hesitantly, “O’Byrne’s and the AF group have a long-standing relationship. We must not fall out.”

  Crawford smiled and said nothing.

  “We must find a way out of this situation,” Peter continued.

  “We have,” Crawford barked, “we have stopped your business with us. We are investigating previous deliveries to see if there is a pattern. We only do test checks on our suppliers normally. However we carry a substantial stock of O’Byrne’s produce. We are going through the lot. In the meantime we have suspended payment on all your accounts, pending. We will re-examine if we get a clear result.”

  “But Mr. Crawford, AF owe us about twenty million. Only a small part of the balance is for organic supplies. Most is low margin processed vegetables and fresh supplies including mushrooms. Our cash flow is badly affected by this.”

  “You should have thought of that before you sent us duff produce. Quality is the hallmark of our business.”

  “I must repeat,” Peter protested, “We are not aware of sending any ‘duff’ produce. O’Byrne’s also have a first class quality image. We merely wish for AF to suspend judgment until the relevant facts are ascertained.”

  “We have, your account is suspended.”

  “Very well,” Peter said miserably, “but we must ascertain the facts. Mr. O’Rourke, our procurement and Supply Director is naturally most concerned.”

  “I would expect so. Has he been fired?”

  “No, of course not, the investigations are not complete, Mr. O’Rourke would like to come personally and talk to your quality people, to see the evidence with his own eyes. He believes that it is quite simple, that the bar has been raised for O’Byrne’s produce, and without consultation quality levels that were acceptable up to now have suddenly changed.”

  “Does he now?” Crawford barked.

  “He wants to talk with your people but they are avoiding and direct discussion on the problem. Can you clear the way for him to have a number of key meetings?”

  “Out of the question.”

  “Pardon?”

  “You heard. Out of the question, we may be taking legal action. You don’t expect us to give away our book of evidence. Who knows what might be concocted by your people.”

  “We are straight dealers Mr. Crawford.”

  “I don’t care what sort of dealers you think you are in O’Byrne’s. No one outside AF gets to our sampling and control methods. Company policy.”

  “This is very difficult Mr. Crawford,” Peter pleaded. “Can you see that we want… we need the AF business. We have served well in the past. We need your help to get things sorted out.”

  “First admit that your firm is a fault.”

  “I am not permitted by my Board to make any admissions,” Peter defended desperately. “But I will say, on my own recognizance, that I accept that we may have had an error. Obviously there is fault somewhere. Our idea was to put our people in touch with your people and work through the evidence, as you would call it and to agree the facts.”

  “We don’t do business that way. Sorry Peter. O’Byrne’s are out, they go on our black list. At best, at some stage when we are satisfied, we will settle our outstanding account to date. End of story.”

  “But... But, we have orders, we have back commitments for future orders from AF.”

  “Those orders are subject to AF terms and conditions. These are written on the back of our official order paper. The standard conditions are plain. We can abort an order prior to delivery, especially if we have quality worries.”

  Peter put his face in his hands. “Look, you could ruin us,” he said.

&n
bsp; Crawford laughed, “Nonsense. O’Byrne’s ruined? Ha... Your company is growing very fast.”

  “Yes, but understand Mr. Crawford, our cash is extended. We have to cover the money AF owes, the factory in Cork, and our forward commitments. This cancellation is catastrophic.”

  “I can’t help that,” Crawford said flatly.

  “But, just for argument, what if you are wrong. If there is a genuine mistake at your end and O’Byrne’s have no quality problems, we could end up suing AF for damaging our reputation, unfair trading and so on. It....”

  “Don’t threaten me with legal action, you young whippersnapper,” Crawford bellowed. Peter blanched.

  “I... I wasn’t threatening. I was just pointing out.”

  “I think we had better finish this interview now.” Crawford cut in coldly.

  “No. No, not yet. Let me get you to understand Mr. Crawford. If we lose your business it comes more or less straight off the bottom line with overheads running on. We want, and we must fight this. You know every firm has a breakeven point. Take AF off the top and O’Byrne’s is in trouble. Big trouble. We need this business. Let us try to work this out.”

  “Are you offering me a bribe?” Crawford sounded almost amused.

  “No,” Peter reddened. “I never had such a thought.”

  Pity, Crawford thought ironically to himself and then went on.

  “Peter I have spoken to our ISO 9002 consultant, the one doing the quality audit.”

  Peter brightened. “Simmons, a good person. She will support our quality assessment in her report.”

  “Afraid not.”

  “What?” Peter was astounded.

  “She has not filed final report yet, but we expect she will support the AF case. I spoke at length with her. In her view there are one or two key areas where interpretation are key. When she files her report she will criticize your quality control procedures.”

  “I am staggered,” Peter said, sitting back in the sofa.

  Crawford paused wondering was his fish ready to be drawn in. He could see Peter was agitated, afraid the interview would end leaving him with nothing.

  “Peter,” Crawford sounded concerned. “How long have our firms done business?”

  “About twenty years if you count the supermarket chains that AF took over during the last ten years.”

  “Yes.”

  Crawford rubbed his chin in contemplation. His hard eyes were assessing every reaction of his subject.

  “Peter are you really concerned that AF has put your firm in a dangerous position.”

  “Yes, yes,” Peter said emphatically, sensing an opening. “You, that is AF, are in a very powerful position. You could wipe out our bottom line. And given our expansion momentum, we could be stopped dead in the water, cash wise.”

  “Out of cash?” Crawford asked gently.

  Peter was cautious, “Not quite, but we have commitments. The Board is not sure how to handle an AF downside situation, if you see what I mean.”

  “I think so.” Crawford smiled a reassuring smile, but his eyes had narrowed. From Peter’s nervousness, he could sense that he had O’Byrne’s by the throat.

  “What about you Peter?” he asked solicitously. “What is your personal position?”

  “Me, I’m all right,” Peter laughed nervously. “I am the bosses only son. It’s O’Rourke who is in trouble, he is Procurement and Supply, and John, the new Finance man; he let us get overexposed.”

  “Overexposed?”

  Peter bit his tongue, “Stretched, financially, I mean.”

  “Still Peter, your family must be wealthy. O’Byrne’s is large for a private firm.”

  “We have grown very fast of course. All our money is tied up in the business. Dad even had to bring in outsiders for the finance. They hold Debentures, but were expecting equity when we went public.”

  “They won’t be happy,” Crawford remarked smiling, speaking as the experienced businessman.

  To Peter he seemed almost relaxed, almost gossiping. Peter desperately wanted to keep him in this vein and then find the right moment to steer the conversation back to a solution.

  “No indeed, they will not be pleased,” Peter said seriously. “Mr. Crawford, I must appeal to you. We need your understanding.”

  “You have my understanding Peter, and my concern. However we cannot change reality. At AF we have a right first time policy and O’Byrne’s has failed the test. Adverse publicity could be disastrous for AF. If it was shown the organic produce we had on our shelves was not truly organic. I am sure you appreciate we cannot take the risk.”

  Peter swallowed. The hard tone had come back into Crawford’s voice.

  “And disastrous for us,” Peter said fervently.

  Crawford looked at his watch and stood up. He walked to his office window and looked out. Peter sensed that the interview was coming to an end. He waited anxiously, watching Crawford’s broad back and wondering what he could say. To his surprise when Crawford turned around he was smiling. This completely unnerved Peter, who grinned weakly in return.

  “Peter. AF also has a policy of long-term association with suppliers. They work with us and we with them. Once quality is high, we work with them and ensure they get a reasonable return for their commitment.”

  “We need a second chance,” Peter jumped in. “We can work with AF to iron out this problem.”

  Crawford sat down again. “Peter how long term is the O’Byrne family commitment to O’Byrne’s as a firm?”

  “Total.”

  “I hear you want the firm to go public?”

  “That is the plan, but O’Byrne as a family would continue to hold the majority shareholding and run the firm.”

  “Why go public Peter?”

  “It increases the marketability of the shares. Let’s us raise finance for further expansion.”

  “So the O’Byrne family holding will become diluted?”

  “Yes, but hopefully, worth considerably more as we expand.”

  “And you Peter, are you the long-term future Managing Director?”

  “Longer term? Dad has a few miles on the clock yet. And I have a bit of living to do. Don’t want to be locked in to the grind too early. All work no play,” Peter joked.

  Crawford laughed a friendly belly laugh. “Peter, what you need is a few years with the jet set. Monte Carlo for the racing, winter on the Ski slopes, early summer in Paris for the French Derby.”

  “Now you are talking,” Peter laughed; they were getting on well now.

  “That would be possible with AF Peter,” Crawford suggested.

  “I don’t know what you mean. The jet set would need a couple of million in the bank. No Mon, no fun.”

  Crawford laughed. “How much is O’Byrne’s worth Peter. How much is your share?”

  Peter smiled depreciatingly, “Personally I have ten percent but it does not vest until my sister Ann-Marie is of age and even then that is not certain as Dad is trustee and he has some discretionary powers. However I have, as Dickens said, great expectations.”

  “And if O’Byrne’s, god forbid, was to go broke?”

  Peter spread his hands. “Nothing.”

  “What you need Peter,” Crawford suggested, “Is a halfway house. Something that will ensure that you get some inheritance and not end up broke.”

  “Halfway houses are hard to get. Grow or die, my dad says.”

  “How much would you settle for? Really, just to be able to enjoy yourself Peter, how much is enough, even in this greedy world?”

  Peter shrugged, “Who would say no to a few million. Dad says we can be worth over a hundred million, but it is hard to believe.”

  “Even if that is right” Crawford suggested “your dad may not put any of if you’re way for twenty or thirty years.”

  “And if I work hard,” Peter agreed.

  “I could put a couple of million in your pocket Peter. And I could do it soon rather than later.”

  Peter laughed nervously. H
e looked in amazement at Crawford. He could not be serious. What was he saying?

  “Don’t you believe me?” Crawford asked.

  “What would I have to do? Commit murder?”

  “It comes back to O’Byrne’s.”

  Crawford paused. This was the crucial moment. If he could swing Peter he was a long way towards his goal. “You see Peter, we have lost faith in the ability of O’Byrne’s to work as a team.”

  Peter opened his mouth to object but Crawford silenced him with a look and a raised hand. “Peter, nothing personal, this is business. AF likes to have long-term relationships. We are most upset at the O’Byrne situation. But there is a way through.”

  “A way through?” Peter’s hopes rose.

  “It could make you personally a millionaire Peter. But it is unpleasant medicine for O’Byrne’s.”

  Peter looked wide-eyed, not understanding, waiting for more. Crawford leaned forward confidentially.

  “AF is aware that O’Byrne’s are a valuable business. We cannot help the fact that quality management is below our standard. But it could be put right the AF way.”

  “The AF way?”

  “We could put AF quality management into O’Byrne’s. We would have to let the current man go, what is his name?”

  “Dermot O’Rourke is his name. Would that work?” Peter brightened, still puzzled.

  “Unfortunately AF would have to acquire O’Byrne’s.”

  “Acquire?” Peter was shocked. “Acquire, you mean acquire O’Byrne’s?”

  “For a fair price of course.”

  Peter felt himself beginning to panic. This was way over his head. “Dad will not sell,” he said firmly.

  “Don’t be rash Peter.” Crawford could sense Peters rising panic. He wanted to soothe him.

  “Peter let me take a moment to explain.”

  “Explain away. No deal.”

  “If we go on the way we are going,” Crawford persisted, friendly and intimate as he spoke. “AF and O’Byrne’s will come to the end of their ways, We will undoubtedly end up enriching lawyers in a court battle which will do neither side any good. On the other hand Peter, the scheme I have in mind, will make you a millionaire with immediate cash in hand, and your Dad will get a fair price for O’Byrne’s. Or at least his fair share.”