Firm loses thousands after Christmas tree supplier disappears

Kevin Harris, the managing director of storage company Zelf, planned to sell trees at Hopton industrial estate with £3 from every sale to be donated to children’s hospice Julia’s House.

He said he ordered £11,000 of premium trees from Salisbury based company Festive Trees Ltd. But alarm bells started ringing when only around half the trees were delivered - and those that were did not live up to expectations.

“We paid for grade one trees and when the trees came we knew there was an issue straight away”, said Mr Harris.

“The trees we got were the worst grade possible. They’re very substandard.”

He said when he called to complain Festive Trees began to get defensive and even left a negative review on Zelf’s Trustpilot page.

The worst was still to come. With around £5,000 of trees still undelivered Mr Harris discovered that Festive Trees Ltd's advertised premises was empty.

The trees that were delivered did not meet expectations. (Image: Zelf)

He said: “I was gutted. I was bewildered and overwhelmed by the fact that this was really happening.

“I felt demoralised because I had put in a lot of work and a lot of hours trying to get this all up and running.

“I have been working all the hours under the sun and now we’re going to lose money. I was really down but we’re in this situation and we’ve got to make the best of it”.

Mr Harris says it has done financial damage to his business.

“There’s a massive impact because we work on 25 per cent margins, so to lose £11,000 means we have to try and find £44,000 in extra sales just to make that up.

“We can’t sell the trees we have at any profit because we paid a premium price for substandard trees so we have to sell some of them at a loss.”.

Despite the setback Zelf made good on a promise to deliver a tree to the children at Julia’s House and will be selling the premium trees trees they bought from elsewhere until December 23 with £3 from each going to the charity.

Zelf are sticking to their promise despite the setback. (Image: Zelf)

Festive Trees claimed on its website to have been growing and supplying trees for more than 20 years.

The website has now been removed and replaced by a statement saying: “Festive Trees has now closed for business. We wish to thank all our loyal customers over the years.”

Mr Harris has reported the issue to police, Trading Standards and Action Fraud.

UPDATE - Monday, December 19

A spokesman for Festive Trees got back to the Gazette and confirmed the business had ceased trading after experiencing ‘many issues’.

They claim Mr Harris told them he was happy with the initial delivery of trees but had cancelled the second set of trees on the morning of the delivery date, something he denies.

“Mr Harris was made aware when placing the order of the terms and conditions of sale. The product comes under the category “perishable goods” and returns are not prohibited unless faulty. Consumer rights are clear on this matter,” they said.

“Unfortunately we were not aware he was ordering from multiple suppliers and comparing quality.

“Never once in any communication did the word premium get used. We supplied what we call G1s to Mr Harris as ordered by him from our wholesale list.

“We feel very let down as well as ashamed by Mr Harris.”

They added that as a ‘goodwill gesture’, Festive Trees would be donating £1,000 to Julia’s House’s Christmas Appeal.