An ex-Queensland state manager of the Kleenmaid Group has revealed in an exclusive interview the down and dirty secrets of the collapsed business and the ruthless money making motives of the directors.
A source, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisal, has contacted the team at Current.com.au and spilled the beans on the manufacturer claiming that the company knew it was going down the drain and was taking every cent out of people it could.
As an ex Queensland state manager in 2007, the source disclosed that within months of being hired at the company he quit due to the fact that he knew the company was headed down a dark path and was disgusted at the practices carried out by the directors.
He commented that Kleenmaid was losing money fast, over two years before the company officially went into administration.
“I quit after a few months, with concerns that the company was losing $600,000 a month and was going to follow this course,” he said. “The company was so top heavy it was scary.”
In addition to this, the source also revealed that its managers and directors were on an incredible salaries despite the fact the company was losing money constantly.
“I was on $135,000 a year to look after seven stores; I had a Queensland general manager on $175,000 to look after me. They also had a national sales manager, and then a GM. The stores were losing money hand over fist and yet the boys club was paid a fortune.”
“Kleenmaid had approximately 150 people looking after 30 stores, and none of them would have been under $60,000 a year.”
“The worst part about this was that we were paid to do nothing, they even discouraged us from being in the office.”
One of the company’s directors, Bradley Young, was also apparently a joke among staff, due to the fact that he had already gone bankrupt in his previous job, and was GM of that particular company.
“There was always something off about Bradley in particular, people around the office used to call him the smiling assassin, he was very ruthless.”
It was also revealed that the company was very insistent on pushing its staff to force extended warranties on customers.
“They used to push their staff to call up customers, some times a year after they had purchased their products, and try and make them buy an extended 10 year warranty. Sometimes they would even say to offer it to them for half price, do whatever it takes to get them in.”
“That’s how they made all their money, through the warranties.”
Overall it seems that Kleenmaid has been doomed for quite some time now and everyone within the organisation knew that it would take this turn.
“No one who worked in the company would be shocked at the company’s demise; it was definitely not a surprise.”
The source was also very adamant that both directors would still be worth a considerable amount of money, and haven’t disclosed exactly how much money they still have up their sleeves.