A Markham, Ont.-based reseller and system builder filed for bankruptcy late last month according to a statement of receivership from a Toronto insolvency firm.
Tandex Technologies Inc. appointed A. Farber & Partners Inc. to become the receiver and manager of the all of the company’s property
and assets, which have a net book value of over $700,000.
The amount owed by the bankrupt company to secured creditors totals approximately $2 million. Secured creditors named in the statement include company principals Tony Wong, owed $870,972, Daniel Kearney, owed $365,176, and Edmond Lau, owed $89,415. According to the statement there are also 102 unsecured creditors including PC Partner Ltd., which is owed $1 million, Ingram Micro Inc. and Synnex Canada Ltd.
Calls to Tandex and A. Farber & Partners were not returned at press time.
One of the creditors, a distributor who did not wish to be identified for the purposes of this article, said the company is “”shocked”” at the news. The company, which had been dealing with Tandex since 2000, received a faxed statement from A. Farber last month but has not heard of any further plans.
“”As far as we’re aware, some of the suppliers were shipping products to (Tandex) the day before the receiver was reported,”” the source said. “”We had no idea (Tandex) was in financial trouble.””
The source said he suspects the motive behind the appointment of the receivership by Tandex’s own directors reflects their outlook on the IT industry. “”They don’t want to continue operation in this industry anymore,”” he said.
According to Tandex’s Web site, which is no longer in operation, the company also had offices in Richmond, B.C., Ste. Foy, Que., and Winnipeg, Man., as well as over 50 Tandex Authorized Service Dealers across the country.
Tandex, which one reseller said was formally known as Laser Computers followed by Vtech before its current name, distributed Microworx and PC Sentinel security products.
It was authorized to sell and support Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Intel, 3Com and D-Link products to education and public sectors. Over 90 per cent of revenue was derived from education with one of its largest customers being the Toronto Catholic District School Board.
Swift Current, Sask.-based T.M. Genik Computer Systems also had trouble trying to get in touch with Tandex at its Winnipeg branch. Company president Tom Genik said the voice mailbox was full when he attempted to call that office recently.
Genik said Tandex tried to contact him via e-mail a few months ago. He was surprised to hear about the firm’s financial woes.
The value-added reseller had been dealing with Tandex since 1987 but stopped reselling Tandex’s systems and LG monitors three years ago.
“”The pricing got to be too pricey,”” said Genik, who added, “”I thought they were a company that was going to last a long time.””
Comment: info@itbusiness.ca