Altech on knife’s edge after fall into administration

Distributor Altech Computers has fallen into voluntary administration, citing cash flow problems.

PPB Advisory administrators Andrew Scott and Daniel Walley were appointed on 3 December.

Walley told CRN that his company is looking for a buyer for the 18-year-old distributor, after a series of failed acquisition attempts earlier this year.

“They’re a victim of the sector, which is very hard to trade in at the moment, but it’s a great opportunity for someone to pick up their IP and customer list,” said Walley.

“But time is against us because we can’t keep trading in administration forever, so we’re trying to get a deal as quickly as we can.”

Documents lodged with corporate watchdog ASIC reveal the financial struggles Altech has faced over several years.

Headcount fell from 180 in June 2013 to 108 staff across Altech's five Australian warehouses on 30 June 2014. According to the administrator, a series of redundancies has brought headcount down to just 17 today, with eight people being let go by the administrators.

Revenue fell by $26 million to $128 million in the 2014 financial year – the most recent numbers publicly available. Altech recorded a loss of $776,000 for 2014, following a $1.1 million loss the previous year.

Cash flow at the end of the 2014 financial year was down to $319,000.

Altech managing director Antony Sheen thanked resellers for their support over the years. “We ask people to be patient while we are together with administrators doing our best to find the best solution.

“There is a strong interest from investors and we are in the negotiation stage.”

The first meeting of creditors is scheduled for 11 December.

Two months ago, Altech managing director Antony Sheen confirmed the company’s Brisbane and Melbourne operations would relocate to its new Sydney warehouse in Olympic Park. A month later, Sheen said the Adelaide operations would also move to Sydney.

Altech still has operations in Perth, as well as New Zealand which is also in administration.

In the past two years, Altech has lost out on a number of vendor partnerships it once had, including losing its Microsoft and Samsung distributor status.

Altech was also the exclusive distributor for PC component and peripheral vendor Corsair for 15 years before the vendor added Synnex and Leader Computers earlier this year.