The global supply chain crisis has claimed its first prominent casualty in the AV systems integration market, with leading German firm Amptown System Company filing for insolvency.
According to German law firm Reimer, the Covid-19 pandemic and recent geopolitical upheavals were responsible for supply chain issues and a drop in orders at the AV integrator.
A Hamburg district court has appointed Peter Alexander-Borchardt of Reimer as provisional insolvency administrator for ASC. Borchardt is to restructure the company while searching for investors.
ASC will continue in operation and salaries for 150 employees based in offices in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt and Leipzig will be paid ouf of the insolvency budget of Germany’s Federal Employment Agency.
Amptown was founded in the 1970s to provide technology for concerts and has since made a name for itself in the entertainment and corporate markets.
Examples of its work include stage lighting and sound reinforcement for the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie concert hall and lighting and sound reinforcement on the cruise ship AIDAnova.
Prominent corporate projects include the German headquarters of medical technology company Olympus, where ASC was responsible for 400 rooms, and the Stuttgart HQ of Bosch Powertrain Solutions.
Reimer provisional insolvency administrator Borchardt commented; “Amptown has an excellent reputation nationwide, the management is extremely competent, the workforce is technologically highly qualified, and I found the employees to be very committed despite the stressful situation for them. Therefore I have good reason to hope to find an investor for Amptown for a long-term viable continuation solution.”
Borchardt and his team are supported by management consultancy Dr Wieselhuber & Partner GmbH which has been advising Amptown on a possible restructuring for several months.
A major AV industry insolvency will come as no surprise to AV social media influencers whose warnings about the viability of AV companies were reported by AV Magazine online in February.
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