By McPherse Thompson, Staff ReporterTHE recent incorporation of a new business operating out of the same St. Andrew premises as United Gasolene Retailers Ltd. (UGRL), has created a dilemma for at least one creditor to whom UGRL is said to owe tens of thousands of dollars.
Reports reaching the Financial Gleaner are that UGRL, which is the trading arm of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA), was no longer in operation.
Telephones listed to UGRL are now answered using the name of the new company, Automotive Power, which carries out business at the same location at 38C Constant Spring Road, King's Plaza, Kingston 10, and personnel at the office answering the telephone said the company has changed its name, that they now operate under the name Automotive Power Ltd., that UGRL was no longer in operation and that there was a change of management.
However, a sign with the name United Gasolene Retailers Limited was still prominently displayed outside the King's Plaza office when the Financial Gleaner visited the premises earlier this week.
At the same time, Automotive Power is contending that it is not affiliated to UGRL, the distributors of United Autopower batteries and accessory products.
UGRL's treasurer, Evert Palmer acknowledged earlier this week in a telephone conversation that the company was indebted to some of its suppliers, but said he was not at liberty to disclose the number of creditors because that was confidential to the business. He deemed it as "out of order" for the newspaper to be asking him questions on whether UGRL was indebted to suppliers, suggesting that he would address the matter only if the Financial Gleaner reveal the source of its information.
Mr. Palmer, a past president of the JGRA, did say, however, that UGRL was still in operation, that "every business" had supplier creditors, and that they, "like any other business in Jamaica today may be having (financial) difficulties."
His comments came on the heels of a complaint by one of URGL's suppliers of office material who said she has been trying to collect outstanding claims for goods credited to the company over the past months, but has been stonewalled by personnel at the office.
According to the supplier, who asked not to be identified by name, having contacted UGRL's office by telephone on several occasions, as well as visited the office, personnel there told her UGRL has been sold to Automotive Power and they could not say if and when suppliers, like herself, would be paid.
"We can't even get information about who we should talk to," said the supplier, adding that personnel at the office "are not telling the creditors anything. We can't exactly say what is going on."
Director/manager of Automotive Power, Kenneth Livingston, said UGRL was still operating as an independent entity, but that company was not affiliated to Automotive Power.
He said Automotive Power bought some of the assets of UGRL and that URGL laid off some of its staff, but the accounts department was fully operational and "I know that UGRL is making arrangements to pay" its creditors.
According to company data, Automotive Power, dealers in petrol, oil, petroleum products and other motor vehicle supplies, was incorporated on September 14, 2000 with registered office at 2A Mountain View Avenue, Kingston 2.
A staff member in UGRL's accounts department referred the Financial Gleaner to UGRL's chairman and immediate past-president of the JGRA, Lloyd G. Brown, for comments on the company's purported indebtedness to creditors, but Mr. Brown has been unavailable and he did not return telephone calls made to his office.
Company data at the Registrar of Companies also show that UGRL began operation in the late 1960s as a limited liability company, but its status was later changed to that of an industrial and provident society, dealing in real estate and investment.
