Allen Music Stores has been saved… in the nick of time.
After negotiations with administrators, the MD of Australian Musical Imports, Con Gallin, has agreed to buy the troubled retailer Allans Billy Hyde which recently went into receivership.
Seven Allans Billy Hyde stores are now to remain trading including Melbourne, Blackburn, Sydney, Alexandria, Parramatta, Adelaide and Southport.
The agreement was reached after negotiaitons with recievers Ferrier Hodgson, according to reports.
However, other smaller stores will shut down.
Australia’s largest independent music retailer, owned by Australian Music Group (AMG), owed creditors approximately $13.5m while employee entitlements total another $3m.
The new owner of Allen Music, Con Gallin, blamed the company management as opposed to the falling demand for musical stores and even said it may reopen other stores in the future.
“The management, both current and previous, lacked music retail expertise and as a result lost large amounts of money,” said Callin also is a Director at Gallin’s Musician’s Pro Shop stores.
“They couldn’t adjust the company expenses to meet reality.
“We’re very, very confident it’s going to go well, but it’s an enormous task to have to do so quickly at this time of the year.”
Ferrier Hodgson was first called in to rescue Allans Billy Hyde in late August.
80 employees had already been made redundant and a number of others resigned.
“We’ll need six months to get settled then from there we can look at a bit more expansion and maybe getting back into some of those other locations,” a confident Gallin added.
