(25-09-2013 11:19)Vyacheslav-mc писал(а):  ...больше всего понравились с Exposure 17/18 (пред/мощник).

Недавно обсуждали в одной из веток Harlech'и - c Exposure это было просто волшебно, за эти деньги на сегодня ничего иблизко купить нельзя...

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(25-09-2013 00:03)Г-н Кабаяши писал(а):  Хм, настоящей Англией Castle был до 2006 года.
После чего бренд был продан китайскому холдингу IAG....

Вот последнее письмо, которое я получил перед сделкой, положившей конец английской компании Castle....события развивались довльно драматично...

"Dear Vitaly

Just a thought that as the dust settles on the events of the last six weeks it would be of benefit to fully explain what occurred and what our plans are for the future.

As you maybe aware the last few years have been very difficult for the company and in reality date back to 1999/2000 when we made some serious errors of judgement, hindsight is wonderful as we all know, however these can be summed up as follows:

(a) We paid too much to buy out our major shareholder
(b) We bombed out on the very expensive Inversion product
© Then got caught up in the worldwide currency crisis at that time.

This left the company with a very poor balance sheet and large overdraft with the Bank, however some time ago we isolated a probable solution to these problems with the redevelopment of the factory site. As you may be aware the Castle factory was situated in a residential area of Skipton and had potential to be used for housing. Had this occurred then the company would have had the funds, not only to clear its debts but also to invest in a new factory and product development. Our bankers were most supportive of this plan as indeed were the other shareholders and we envisaged having all this completed in 2004 – 2005, however we greatly underestimated the planning process in the UK.
The longer this process dragged on the more cash drained out of the company, effecting our ability both to pay suppliers and get the product out to you. Finally in early October Craven Council rejected (for the third time) our plans to develop the site at Park Mill. The reason for refusal was a spurious technicality but nevertheless it meant that we would need to appeal and that process could take another 3 to 4 months. Additionally our problems paying suppliers were increasing and some were getting very aggressive with the Company. Amongst these were the Inland Revenue (tax people) who as in most countries are not noted for taking prisoners.
The Directors, of Castle, then decided that given all these problems we should take professional advice regarding the company’s position in law and after due consideration they recommended administrative/receivership. We felt that this advise was sound and that it offered the best prospect for the company to survive and therefore we sadly had to call in the receivers at Castle on the 27th of October.

The receiver's role, in the UK, is firstly to establish if there is a viable business that can be saved and only if this is not possible to sell the assets of the business to pay the creditors. Having reviewed the position of the company they felt that the route of saving the company was not possible, as our bankers had effectively called in the property to cover their debt. The only other assets of the business were the brand name, the machinery, the work in progress and stock. Without a factory to house the machinery there was not much value in that part of the assets, which left the brand name and the parts that go with it. As it is the duty of the receiver to maximise the value of the assets they duly ran an advert in the Financial Times for the business.

Given Castle’s worldwide reputation many companies expressed an interest in its purchase. Amongst these, not surprising were Graham and myself, we felt that we still had much to offer and that the progress we have made in recent times with the model range had placed Castle in a much stronger position in the market than it had been for many year. Indeed it was only the ongoing shortage of cash that had prevented the company moving forward at a far more significant pace and without the historical debt and overhead the company could once again grow and be profitable. Our fellow directors agreed with this proposition, as did both our designer and PR guy and all committed to this new company and invested in it. We developed a complete business plan and once this was complete we bid to buy the business from the receivers.

Unfortunately several other famous predators were as interested as us in Castle. We had some inside knowledge as to the level of offer/bid that was coming in from these people and therefore knew we could either beat it or walk away from the situation if it became financially beyond us. Right up until the last minute we thought we had a real good chance of success and then at the 11th hour two of the bidders raised their respective offers by 50% and blasted us out of the water. We reckon that there was some secret horse-trading going on here but we cannot prove it. As soon as the deal is complete we will disclose the name of the company who won out, you may or not be pleased when you hear who it is.

However that is not the end of the story!

Having developed this business plan we quickly came to the realisation that despite our failure to purchase the Castle brand name, the plan had a lot of merit. We already had on the team all the elements to start afresh, we had the sales and marketing skills required for the Hi Fi market, we had the design skills to produce first rate models, we had the PR required to get the press on board, the production skills to get the product out and finally the finance in place to ensure it would happen.

AND IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!

So keep in touch and watch this space, we will return

All the best

Fred & Graham"