Audio visual reseller loses up to $50K in Sydney explosion

According to media reports, an explosion occurred at the Nandos chicken shop located in the foyer of the Quadrant apartment building in Mountain Street at 1.18am on 4 February. The ground-floor blast destroyed Nandos and an adjoining shop while offices above were severely damaged.

Glass from the businesses and surrounding apartments blew metres across the street into a church, cafe and hair care business (see picture).

Glenn Richards, NSW director of av media systems said the blast took out windows and around five or six stories of office buildings.

“One of those offices happened to be mine. The offices within the building are so severely damaged,” he said.

According to Richards, the company’s content insurance will cover his laptop and three projectors stolen by looters, however a lot of customer information, databases and other valuable information cannot be replaced.

“We are basically a distributor of high-end projectors. We are also a national reseller company that looks after the installation and servicing of high-end digital signage products,” he said. “This blast has screwed us in NSW and we have to basically start the business from scratch. That’s two and a half years of hard work that can’t be replaced,” said Richards.

He told CRN that when the bomb blast when off on Monday, the occupants of the office building weren’t allowed to return to collect their belongings until Friday.

“I couldn’t get to our database, diary and PCs. I literally had to go and buy a pen and get an exercise book to write down the details of customers that called wanting to know why we didn’t turn up for a servicing job. We had all of our calls diverted to the Melbourne office, but the postie had nowhere to put the mail because the mailbox was also destroyed,” said Richards. av media systems sells designs and services high-end digital signage products. As a result of the blast, it is now two weeks behind in the delivery of goods, installation of products and services, claimed Richards.

“Right now we are occupying a little bit of office space in the downstairs area of the same building that was damaged. However there are no phone lines and no Internet access,” he said.

Although the company’s stock is located in the warehouses of its Melbourne headquarters, Richards said it’s the little things that you would normally take for granted that are now gone.

“Now I have to look at whether or not I buy a photocopy/fax machine or wait for the insurance money to come through. This blast has caused a lot of havoc. I had planned to double the number of staff this year. Now I am thinking about basic things like getting the electricity and phone lines hooked up for the new office,” he said.

Richards estimates the loss to be around $50,000. That includes loss of customers, equipment and the setting up of a new premise.

“Around 90 percent of my customers have understood the situation. But 10 percent have just been unreasonable. I had one guy call me up the day after the explosion wanting to know where his projector was. I had to literally run up to his office in Broadway, Sydney and explain to him what happened,” he said. “He then asked me if the projector would turn up the next day. Even though I have explained the situation, I don’t think head office comprehends the damage that occurred because of this explosion.”

Richards said it wasn’t only the business that suffered. He had also almost lost his life.

“I finished up in the office at 11pm and then went upstairs to my apartment. At around 12:30pm I woke up nauseous and had a burning throat. The doctor told me if it had been a minute longer I would have died of gas inhalation,” he said.

Despite the difficulties of the past couple of weeks, Richards is optimistic
he will be able to get the business back on its feet in the next six to eight months.

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