Augsburg, September 25, 2008
On Wednesday evening, the creditors' committee approved the agreements of the Maxdata insolvency administrator and thus finalized the contracts: The server and PC business under Maxdata goes to Quanmax, the Belinea business to Brunen IT. IT-BUSINESS was the first to talk to Hannes Niederhauser and Frank Brunen about their plans and the subject of old equipment warranties.
Despite intensive efforts, the Maxdata Group as a whole could not be retained. Even without the Würselen production site, no investor could be found. The group is therefore being broken up into individual parts.
Manulogs
The production subsidiary Manulogs at the Würselen site is at an end and is being wound up. The property belongs to an investment fund and was sold by Maxdata two years ago in a sale-and-lease-back process. The insolvency administrator was not even able to find a successor for the lease agreement.
SLP Solutions
The insolvency administrator is still negotiating about Maxdata's service subsidiary, SLP Solutions. There is an interested party who would continue to employ some of the staff. An agreement is to be reached in the coming weeks. Negotiations with the potential buyer were broken off because SLP Solutions was originally to be included in the overall package with Quanmax. When the deal fell through, the insolvency administrator resumed negotiations
Maxdata
The Maxdata brand will be taken over by Quanmax, the same company that first bought Chiligreen and then Gericom and initially wanted to take over the Maxdata Group completely. The joint venture is owned by the German Kontron AG, which specializes in embedded computers, and the Taiwanese manufacturer Quanta, the number one in notebook production. The new owner wants to sell PCs and servers under the Maxdata brand and position Maxdata as a business brand alongside the consumer brands Chiligreen and Gericom. In addition, synergies in production and customer support are to be created between the brands.
Belinea
Brunen IT GmbH has secured the Belinea brand. According to the Manulogs website, the provider of netbooks and notebooks was the only customer of the production facility in Würselen apart from Maxdata itself. The company is not yet in the channel business, but generates 90 percent of its sales with the online store www.one.de. A separate sales company is being set up for Belinea, which only sells indirectly. The focus is on notebooks and netbooks, and PCs and TFT monitors will also continue to be available under the Belinea brand.
Maxdata is active again
Since Wednesday, September 24, 2008, Quanmax has owned the rights to Maxdata. In addition, around 60 employees have been taken over and continue to work at the Maxdata premises in Marl. They can be contacted again with immediate effect and provide up-to-date information to the specialist trade.
Jürgen Werneke, who was previously responsible for Maxdata International, has been appointed Managing Director. He is assisted by Mario Heurigs, formerly of Gericom, as Head of Finance. The former Maxdata board members Thomas Stiegler and Ralf Coenen were dismissed as part of the insolvency proceedings, as were all other employees.
Frank Kwasnitza is back on board. He has returned to his former position as sales manager and, according to Hannes Niederhauser, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Quanmax, has already started work.
In an interview with IT-BUSINESS, Niederhauser outlined the plans for Maxdata, which also correspond with the latest acquisitions, Gericom and Chiligreen. Maxdata will be positioned as a pure business brand, the portfolio will be limited to PCs and servers. Sales will also initially be limited to the DACH region, covered by the branches of MAxdata in Germany, Chiligreen/Gericom in Austria - where Maxdata sales staff will also be based - and a branch in Switzerland, which will either be run as a management buy-out or also taken over by Quanmax. All other foreign activities will be discontinued - Maxdata has lost too much money here, according to Niederhauser.
Premium approach to portfolio and service
Maxdata servers will continue to be "Made in Germany", assured Niederhauser. As before, Quanta will supply the barebones, which will then be assembled and configured by hand in Marl. PCs are to be manufactured "with the same depth of added value" as at Maxdata in Austria together with Chiligreen PCs. For server production, the "new Maxdata" can rely on experienced personnel from the previous production facility.
As Niederhauser emphasizes, the company also wants to expand its portfolio and no longer limit itself to Intel servers. With Quanta's own developments, Maxdata will develop into a server manufacturer that is the first to bring new technologies to the market. In just a few weeks, there will be several new products that will set standards in terms of speed.
This approach also includes high-quality service. The existing resources at Maxdata, Gericom and Chiligreen are to be coordinated as a first step. The aim is to achieve the high level of MAxdata everywhere. Together with Quanta Service in Aachen and a recently acquired technical call center in Romania for first-level support, a "Service Excellence Center" is ultimately to be created within the Group. This should also help to make Gericom an attractive brand again.
Warranty processing brought back
Maxdata intends to handle warranty cases for products that have been sold since its insolvency itself again in future and no longer via PC-Garant. This will keep everything in one hand.
Hannes Niederhauser gives a clear answer to the question of "old devices": "Anyone who continues to buy from Maxdata can count on a goodwill arrangement. The sales department is instructed to make individual agreements with the partners". Equally clear: inquiries from countries in which Maxdata is no longer active have no prospect of success. Here Maxdata refers to the legal situation, according to which it no longer has any obligations in such cases.
Cautiously optimistic
Niederhauser uses the sales figures in the "core area" of the former Maxdata as a target: he wants to sell 150,000 PCs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2009. The server figures should be significantly higher than what was previously achieved. According to the new Maxdata owner, Quanta also offers more opportunities here: Maxdata was previously unable to accept projects with high server volumes for capacity reasons. Today, these can also be produced directly at Quanta if there is a corresponding demand.
However, he does not want to raise expectations too high, as Quanmax and the company behind it, Quanta, are actually "newcomers" in Europe. On the other hand, he does see potential that can be exploited: "The turbulence at FSC has freed up shares in the server market that we want to fill," he announced.
In order to round off the portfolio for the project business, Gericom notebooks are also to be offered, with Gericom undergoing a repositioning in the near future. Maxdata also offers Belinea monitors, for which a cooperation agreement has been concluded with the Belinea buyer Brunen IT.
Brunen IT not yet in the channel
The buyer of the Belinea brand, Brunen IT, is hardly known in the channel so far. 90 percent of sales are generated via the website www.one.de, where notebooks and netbooks for consumers are sold under the One brand.
Belinea, on the other hand, will remain a purely indirectly distributed brand, assured Managing Director Frank Brunen in an interview with IT-BUSINESS. A new company will be founded in which eleven former Maxdata and Belinea employees will be taken on. The focus of the "new Belinea" will be on notebooks; from November 1, there will also be aggressively priced netbooks, which will nevertheless offer retailers an interesting margin, announced Brunen. The portfolio also includes Belinea PCs and TFT monitors.
About Vogel IT-Medien:
Vogel IT-Medien, Augsburg, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vogel Business Media, Würzburg. Since 1989, the publishing house has been publishing specialist media for decision-makers who are professionally involved in the production, procurement or use of information technology. In addition to print and online media, it also offers a broad portfolio of events with the IT-BUSINESS Academy.
If you have any questions, please contact:
Vogel IT-Medien GmbH
Harald Jacob
Editorial Manager IT-Business
August-Wessels-Str. 27
86156 Augsburg
Phone +49 821 2177-206
Fax +49 821 2177-35206
E-Mail: Harry.Jacob@vogel-it.de
