Drivers lose jobs following City Link collapse

Almost 400 employees from across the West Midlands have already been sacked after last-ditch efforts to rescue the parcel company failed this week.

And now the boss of Wolverhampton-based Simply Delivery Midlands Ltd - a sub-contractor which provided City Link with drivers - has had to let 12 people go.

Company Director Mike Battison said he is owed around £28,000 by City Link and could no longer afford to keep the staff on.

He admitted more posts may have to go and the future of his company was not certain.

"City Link's collapse has turned a healthy company into a very flat company within a couple of hours," he said.

"I had looked at my bank balance just before it all started coming out and thought, ok, we are on course to have a good year.

"But it isn't like that now. It has taken all the fight out of me at the moment."

Mr Battison - who runs the company based in Penn - told the 12 drivers on Boxing Day, two days after City Link employees learnt of its collapse.

He said contracts with the Coventry-based delivery firm had formed a big part of his company's future plans and he now feels de-moralised.

He added: "A few of our friends were going out to celebrate the New Year and they asked me to join.

"I had to say no. I wouldn't be great company for anyone at the moment.

"I am finding it difficult to pick myself up and to try again to move the business forward."

On New Year's Eve administrators from Ernst and Young announced 2,356 City Link workers would be sacked across the country.

This followed a failed bid from an unnamed consortium to salvage the company.

At the firm's Wednesbury depot, 47 staff have lost their jobs, with just four kept on. At Stone in Staffordshire, 35 have gone, with six remaining while at Birmingham 38 out of 43 have gone.

While at City Link's Coventry headquarters 279 staff have been sacked, leaving just nine.

In total, just 371 people have been kept on to deal with the few thousand parcels remaining within the network and to help the administrators sell the assets and wind down the company.

Customers who have sent parcels and intended recipients have been told to collect their items with depots expected to remain open until 'about' January 6.

Mr Battison said the whole collapse had been handled poorly.

He added: "There wasn't any communication. I think the way they have done it has been despicable. "