Sonic Distribution Limited (04390451): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2016-12-19
- Administrators
- Colin David Wilson, Trevor John Binyon
- Administrators' firm
- Opus Restructuring
- Incorporated
- 2002-03-08
- Location
- London
- Industry
- 46180 Agents specialised in the sale of other particular products
Why it went into administration
- Funding withdrawn / unable to refinance
- Sustained trading losses
From the administrators' statement
Sonic Distribution Limited hereinafter referred to as the ‘Company’ or ‘Sonic’ was founded in March of 2002, by Philip Anthony Smith (‘PS’) and James Young (‘JY’), as a UK exclusive distributor of professional audio products PS and JY had both previously worked tn this market sector in the UK, variously in technical sales support roles and, in JY's case, as National Sales Manager for Stirling Audio Systems and Pure Distribution The industry was going through rapid changes at the time Sonic was set up and the old model of combined dealer/distributor was breaking down as the market expanded Sonic was set up to fill a new niche of distribution only, for technical, high-end, audio products Customers included UK retailers, professional recording studios and artists
The Company was initially funded using a combination of personal loans and the re-mortgage of JY's house After the first year of trading, Lloyds Bank began to offer CID facilities secured by PG's from the directors The directors continued to introduce loan monies into the Company pertodically to support periods of growth
Within the first year of trading Sonic developed a relationship with Siwei Zou, a microphone designer based in Shanghai with strong connections into Original Equipment Manufacturer (‘OEM’) production and began distributing the newly formed brand of SE Electronics across Europe Initially, this relationship was informal, however, after a few years of trading and with SE becoming an Increasingly large part of Sonic’s business, agreements were sought by Sonic to formalise the arrangement Around 2007 an agreement was finally reached whereby PS, JY (and then business partner Mitch Carey, deceased 2010) would receive share options in SE, and global distribution, based on a payment pian of $1 5M over 7 years running up to November 2014
Administrators' statement of proposals (2017-02-20) · Companies House register