The downsized Sixth Avenue Electronics chain will be rescued by a Brooklyn, N.Y. distributor of camera equipment, according to two industry sources.
The distributor is expected to take a 33 percent stake in Sixth Avenue Electronics and supply the capital to pay off the N.J. chain’s outstanding loans to Webster bank this month, most likely around mid- month, sources said.
All leading Sixth Avenue executives will remain in place, the sources said.
Sixth Avenue, which does a significant car electronics business, has downsized to 9 stores, in N.J and Long Island, NY, from about 19 in at the start of the year.
Car Electronics buyer Don Barros said the company’s strategy going forward is to expand its Internet presence and also return to a focus on customer service. It expects to drop some of its third tier brands in car electronics and other consumer electronics segments.
“We’re here for the long run. We’ll go back to our core as a strong mid- to high-end AV retailer.” Barros said that customer service “made us who we are and we’re going to try to improve on that.”
“We’ll get away from some of the off-brand, third tier guys, across the board including car,” he added. “And we’ll focus more on the Internet; we have no choice.”
Sixth Avenue launched a major expansion into states including Pennsylvania and Delaware in 2009, but began closing stores this year. It was sued by GE Commercial Distribution Finance in March, after the retailer defaulted on a $6.37 million payment in February. By the end of March GE and Sixth Avenue reached a tentative settlement.
F&E Trading declined to comment.
Source: CEoutlook
Sixth Avenue is down to 7 locations. In the past 2 weeks they have shut the Brick NJ & Commack NY location. F&E Trading owns part of the company and the reason why is for transhipping.They partner with Sixth Avenue for the store fronts in order for them to purchase merchandise from Samsung, Bose, and more in order to sell this merchandise over seas. Thats why the person who purchaased part of the company is not being named. Sixth Avenue will lose there lines if the vendors figure this out,then the company will fold.