HP seeks to wind up ACD

Trade

Following its decision to terminate its relationship with Advanced Computer Distribution (ACD) earlier this year, Hewlett Packard is now bidding to have the distributor closed down.

As a creditor of the company, HP has petitioned the High Court to have ACD wound up, with the petition to be heard on October 13th. However, it is understood that efforts to resolve the situation between the two companies will continue in the run-up to the court date.

ACD was established in 1994 as a distributor for Digital and later Compaq, and grew to be one of the major IT distributors in the country. According to accounts filed with the Company Registration Office, the company recorded pre-tax profits in 2000 of over EUR920,000 on sales of just over EUR26m.

In 2001, the latest year for which accounts are available, ACD’s sales reached EUR39.6m but pre-tax profits were down to EUR580,000. The company reported last year that its sales for the year ending June 30th 2002 were down to EUR36.8m.

It is understood that ACD has been in financial difficulties since last year. Earlier this year, HP dropped the company from its distributor base in favour of Clarity and Sharptext.

ACD distributes Canon, Commvault, Kingston and Storagetek and became Citrix’s second distributor in April last year. It also signed a recent distributorship deal with Novell, but this has since been terminated, according to Novell.

The company is jointly owned by Michael and Catherine Doyle. ACD’s website has been inaccessible for some time.

Speaking to ComputerScope in August, ACD general manager, John Doherty denied rumours that the company was to close, saying that it was in the process of ‘reprofiling’ itself in an effort to better fit the market.

He added that a decision on the Blackrock-based company’s future strategy would be made before the end of the year.

The High Court has jurisdiction to wind up companies and appoint official liquidators. The most usual way companies are wound up by the court is where a petition is presented by a creditor on foot of an unpaid debt. 

14/10/2003

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