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Speaker 1: If what they're saying about Flick Electric shutting up shop

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Speaker 1: is true, and I've got no reason to doubt it,

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Speaker 1: then sadly it should come as no surprise to us.

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Speaker 1: This is a business desk report. Flickers owned by z

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Speaker 1: So far they're not saying anything, but it's one of

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Speaker 1: the smaller retailers. They help keep the bigger Gen Taylors

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Speaker 1: on us their forty thousand customers. Does Flick have well

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Speaker 1: had potentially but the cracks started showing ages ago, like

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Speaker 1: winter twenty twenty one, they closed their books to new customers.

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Speaker 1: The great wholesale price crunch hit them hard. And last

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Speaker 1: year again wholesale price is shot up above retail and

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Speaker 1: you can't run a business like that. We were warned

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Speaker 1: then about what is happening now. It means the little

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Speaker 1: guys basically can't hold on. The problem for them is hedging.

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Speaker 1: This is their big problem. They can't afford the cost

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Speaker 1: of hedging during a crunch for new customers, and that

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Speaker 1: means least choice for us, and we know what that

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Speaker 1: typically does to prices. And unlike Air New Zealand and

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Speaker 1: the regional airfares debate in the past week, there is

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Speaker 1: in this situation, a quick fix for the problem, at

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Speaker 1: least a partial one, and guess what the government announced

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Speaker 1: such a fix too much fanfare in February. They said

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Speaker 1: that the big gen tailors would no longer be allowed

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Speaker 1: to offer sweetheart deals to their own lot. Transparency about

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Speaker 1: these deals would be forced upon them. We had the

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Speaker 1: Minister on at the time. Now, the generator part has

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Speaker 1: been favoring the Taylor part, but not the other smaller players,

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Speaker 1: so they were going to do something about it. The

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Speaker 1: odds are basically stacked against Flick and the little guys

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Speaker 1: and out Flix the lights. So we've known about this

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Speaker 1: on Fairness since at least twenty twenty one for Flick,

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Speaker 1: and we've had belatedly an announcement that something might change,

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Speaker 1: but years later, no real change and another retailer bites

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Speaker 1: the dust customers off to you guessed at Meridian, one

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Speaker 1: of the big gent tailors. Losing Flick, if true, is

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Speaker 1: another sign that winter is coming, and I can't see

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Speaker 1: anybody in much of a hurry to do much of

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Speaker 1: anything about it. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talk Set B from five am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,