6 l December 2014
www.psneurope.com
business UAE
GERMANY
AED Rent travels east with first franchise By Marc Maes
As from 6 November, AED Rent Franchise UAE is poised to become the dry-hire partner for professional rental companies in the United Arab Emirates. “We have built the AED Rent franchise model as an expansion into new territories in Europe, Africa, the Middle and Far East,” says Glenn Roggeman, CEO of AED group. “In 2015, we will start to commercialise this formula, granting selected companies the exclusive franchise for each country to operate as AED Franchisee under the AED Rent umbrella: top notch gear and state-of-the-
art products, large inventories and high standards.” Interactive workflows allow AED employees worldwide to service, repair and handle equipment like in the Belgian headquarters. The AED group’s first franchise will be headed by Nigel Pinto. He is backed by 18 years’ experience in the stage and live industry as a partner in Gearhouse Audio Visual, one of the Middle East’s biggest production companies. Roggeman expects that the new company in Dubai, the world’s fastest moving financial market, will be the both the
gateway for some 100 UAE-based companies and open up opportunities for the Far East. AED Rent has shipped 200 tons of equipment to the Emirates, including the latest gear by leading audio brands including L-Acoustics, JBL, Shure, and QSC, plus topdrawer video and lighting systems. The equipment will be stored in a 2,500m2 warehouse in the Dubai Investment Park site. At press time, the AED HQ staff is training 12 employees for the Dubai franchise. Q www.aedrent.com
ADAM Audio looks to restructure after bankruptcy filing By Dave Robinson ADAM Audio, the Berlinbased manufacturer of active studio monitors for the professional audio industry, is restructuring its business, having filed for bankruptcy in mid-November. ADAM was co-founded by Klaus Heinz and Roland Stenz in 1999; Stenz left the company in 2010 to form EVE Audio. (Heinz is pictured here with a pair of high-end ADAM Tensor Alpha hi-fi speakers.) In a statement delivered on 18 November, ADAM told PSNEurope: ADAM Audio […] had to file for bankruptcy last week, with Mr Heinz and the administrator aiming to restructure the company. “Too fast a growth with too many products created a capital demand we could not raise,” declared Klaus Heinz, founder and CEO of ADAM Audio. There are currently ongoing
negotiations with different investors to convert [our] positive market acceptance into further growth. Dr Philipp Hackländer, of White & Case Insolvenz in Berlin, was appointed administrator on 17 November. The German Insolvency Code (1999) is similar to a Chapter 11 filing in the US, and shifts the emphasis of the process away from liquidation towards reorganisation. “All subsidiaries continue their work,” confirms Heinz. In a Facebook exchange posted on 11 November, ADAM Audio replied to a customer: “We have serious delivery problems; this also applies for spare parts”. ADAM expects to resume deliveries of product in the January. Q www.adam-audio.com