Instead all Australian marketing decision are now being made out of Singapore and the USA. The move which shows little faith in Australian management comes as B&O puts on hold till later this year the complete make over of several stores.Bevan Van Blerk said "I am no longer responsible for marketing decisions in Australia. This role is now being conducted from overseas via a combination of executives in Singapore and the USA. I fought against this but lost out"

When it was put to Van Blerk that Australia was a very different market to the USA and Singapore he said" I agree, but I have no say now in the way this operation is marketed". When asked what skills overseas marketing management had of the Australian market he said "Little this was my argument". A senior B&O Australia store manager told SHN "This is a classic case of overseas executives walking into Australia thinking that they know best when in fact they know little if anything about Australian consumers other than what some account manager in an advertising agency tells them in an email". When the Danes took over they promised major revamps of stores and even that has been put on hold. Things are not going well". On the question of store makeovers Van Blerk said" We have delayed the makeovers as they would impact on key buying periods". A spoksperson for B&O in Singapore failed to return calls to SHN.

In recent weeks Analyst Rune Møller of Jyske Bank downgrades Bang & Olufsen from "buy" to "accumulate." In a research note dated February 20 and published this week, the analyst mentions that the company's share price has appreciated 16% over the last one month. Although Icelandic FL Group has acquired 8% of Bang & Olufsen's shares, the company is not an acquisition target, the analyst believes. A big problem facing B&O is that they are potentially facing a backlash from Muslims in several Countries for simply being a Danish Company following the publication in Denmark of controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. However many experts claim that sales in Countries that don't support the muslim ban will make up for lost sales in other Middle East Countries.

Danish Trade officals have said that the controversy had severely impacted the CE Industry a key part of the country's economy, as well as Danish primary industries. Danish trade officials have called on all consumer electronics (CE) vendors to play a role in diffusing the controversy that has led to a boycott of Danish goods.

Head of the Trade Policy Department at the Danish Foreign Office Svend Roed Nielsen said recently "We advise companies to try to use their business contacts  to correct some of the misinformation that has been widely circulated." "They have to be engaged in a dialogue with their retail partners and consumers," he said. "We are advising them to stay in the market and work to improve the situation." Hwe added "It's a complicated situation at present and many manufacturers, particularly those producing high-end consumer products like B&O, have told us that they have suffered very little impact to date," he added.

However Bang & Olufsen's head of communications, Thomas Reil, reported that it was a case of "business as usual" for Bang & Olufsen particulary in the in the Middle East where the Company has several stores. He said "Although we have a retail presence in almost every country in the region, no Bang & Olufsen store has had to close and there has been little impact on sales," he said.