Plasma TV Company Vizio and sister business Digital Video Technology (DVT) are facing the possibility of being placed into administration following the non payment of large sums of money for advertising and marketing activities.
The move could impact specialist dealers who supported the launch of the Vizio brand in Australia.
Sydney based marketing group Robot Blonde have engaged leading legal firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth to take action against Vizio Pty Ltd and DVT. An executive of Robot Blonde Emile Scott said “We have sought orders to stop assets being removed or sold and we will seek to place these two Companies into administration as both are intimately linked. We are owed large sums of money for advertising and marketing activities conducted over the past six months for the Vizio Plasma brand”. The amounts owing are in excess of $150,000. Vizio have also refused to honour commitments for prizes and are now attempting to get back from Robot Blonde a plasma screen and documents relating to the Company’s operations in Australia.
Last week SHN learnt that Vizio Pty Ltd made an offer to settle with Robot Blonde but this was rejected as it was believed to be less than 25% of the amounts outstanding.
Run by a husband and wife team of Stefan and Theresa Mary Wisniewski the principle of the business has admitted that they are “Maxed out with lending institutions” and are facing the possibility that they could lose their family home.
The US Company also appears to be distancing them from the Australian operation after a brand new Vizio Corporate web site failed to list the Australian operation. The Company is also facing the possibility of being investigated by the NSW Department of Fair Trading over claims on the Company web site that it sells Vizio LCD TV’s. During a recent interview with SmartHouse News Stefan Wisniewski admitted that he was unable to range LCD TV’s in Australia because Vizio were not committed to developing immediately PAL LCD TV technology. He said “Under our agreement with Vizio we can use the Vizio brand on any TV screens that we source whether it is from a cheap factory in Taiwan or Korea. Unfortunately we have no LCD TV’s other than some NTSC sample models we bought into Australia”
He also said” At this stage don’t have the finance in place to bring in the LCD TV range as both GE and St George have knocked us back. We held discussions with Vizio in China recently and they are not really interested in PAL plasma or LCD TV models until they have their own capacity issues ironed out for the US market. The earliest we could see Vizio product is
Suppliers to Digital Video Technology have admitted to SHN that they are concerned over the Companies plight and that they “Are watching the situation daily”.
