Allans/Hyde: Exit Guitar Centre, (re)enter Gallin

MON 15 OCT 2012

Ferrier Hodgson released a statement (below) which means Guitar Centre are out and Con Gallin is back in. Mr Gallin is the Managing Director of Australian Musical Imports (AMI) and Gallin’s Musician’s Pro Shop retail stores.

This story has moved fast: on Wednesday last week (10 Oct) Con Gallin told CX his bid for some of the stores had been rejected. On Thursday (11 Oct) we reported the Hot Tip that Bain Capital / Guitar Centre would buy the group. Now they are out the door, and the word is that Con Gallin will get some stores.

We assume his bargaining position has strengthened significantly, having been turned away last week he is now back at the table. Once again we extend a massive vote of sympathy for the 519 remaining staff.

The official statement:

The Receivers and Managers of Australia’s largest independent music retailer, Australian Music Group Holdings Pty Ltd (AMG), trading as Allans Billy Hyde, announced today that one of the parties they had been negotiating with had withdrawn its interest in buying the entire business.

This led to an immediate restructuring resulting in 16 redundancies, mostly in head office.

This takes the total number of redundancies during the receivership to 81, leaving 519 employees at AMG.

The Receivers are continuing negotiations with another party that has expressed interest in buying a small parcel of individual stores. If this sale is successful, it is likely to preserve a number of jobs.

All stores are now in hard closedown mode, with a stock sell-out sale well underway.

Final closure dates for individual stores will be dictated by the speed with which remaining stock is sold out.

The receiver, Mr Brendan Richards, thanked all staff for their efforts throughout the receivership.