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Sad day for Kralk

h.g. said:
Welcome to business in the modern UK. Although understandable it is disappointing that Tony doesn't want us to discuss what has almost certainly taken out a small viable growing UK home audio business. But not certainly which I guess is the point.
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You're disappointed not to be able to create purely speculative negative publicity and FUD towards small hi fi businesses and thereby threaten their sales and viability?? Lovely...
 
sq225917 said:
I'm sorry they've folded, hopefully he'll regroup. The problem is that a hobby business with modest turnover is easy to manage, scaling up requires investment and business acumen and that's brings demands for steady sales, marketing Infrastructure, real margins and a whole host of other head aches.
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Cash flow creator or destroyer and that means a sound business plan. I have seen small business with full order books go under because they ran out of cash whilst expanding and the banks said no.

Cheers,

DV
 
Arkless Electronics said:
You're disappointed not to be able to create purely speculative negative publicity and FUD towards small hi fi businesses and thereby threaten their sales and viability?? Lovely...
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I wanted to talk about what can happen when a founder of a business that has established itself over a period of years and is in a position to grow. To do this they need stop doing everything themselves and to bring in some investment and hand some of the work like sales, marketing, finance,... while they (usually) concentrate more exclusively on the technical side. In order to do this they invite in people with the relevant background while retaining a majority share of the business. They shortly find themselves ousted from what was their business.

I have refrained from details but if this is still considered too much please delete.
 
h.g. said:
I wanted to talk about what can happen when a founder of a business that has established itself over a period of years and is in a position to grow. To do this they need stop doing everything themselves and to bring in some investment and hand some of the work like sales, marketing, finance,... while they (usually) concentrate more exclusively on the technical side. In order to do this they invite in people with the relevant background while retaining a majority share of the business. They shortly find themselves ousted from what was their business.

I have refrained from details but if this is still considered too much please delete.
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Funny, first who came up to my mind definately Adam at Onix matches that description exactly.
He proved to be terrible un-talented for anything customer related.
By far the biggest liar in British audio,
Maybe he's even considered criminel by now.

As for Alan/Kralk he was such a talented guy i'm really sad to learn if they are gone.
 
Olsen said:
Funny, first who came up to my mind definately Adam at Onix matches that description exactly.
He proved to be terrible un-talented for anything customer related.
By far the biggest liar in British audio,
Maybe he's even considered criminel by now.

As for Alan/Kralk he was such a talented guy i'm really sad to learn if they are gone.
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Terribly untalented at anything electronics related as well! Before the current fiasco when he posted a few "technical" things I pointed out that he was "using all the right technical words but not necessarily in the right order" and that I was very suspicious that he hadn't a clue.... and was promptly barred from the thread!
 
Back to kralk...I wish the chap well and hopefully the original ideas and products will still continue.

I absolutely understand that investors have a duty to see a return (after all,most investors invest others money). Most investors/organisations just hang a sign on the website and change the name.

I do feel that message on the website is a rather thinly disguised criticism? And in my opinion pointed. “Still a director and shareholder even if not a salaried employee anymore”? investment is the cornerstone of any going concern but that statement is clearly written in the absence of the original business owner, bearing in mind we are talking about Hifi speakers and not international conglomerate hostile takeovers. Whoever the investors are is if little concern, the fact that they feel they need to let the world know that they (appear) to know better reads as ridiculous.
 
sq225917 said:
Just some clueless no mark trying to squeeze out the brains behind the products...
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It seems like that, but you have to wonder why. I don't imagine there's much in the way of IPR for them to exploit, and without the founder on board they will lose good will.
 
h.g. said:
I wanted to talk about what can happen when a founder of a business that has established itself over a period of years and is in a position to grow. To do this they need stop doing everything themselves and to bring in some investment and hand some of the work like sales, marketing, finance,... while they (usually) concentrate more exclusively on the technical side. In order to do this they invite in people with the relevant background while retaining a majority share of the business. They shortly find themselves ousted from what was their business.

I have refrained from details but if this is still considered too much please delete.
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It’s not just technical people this happens to, Lawyers, Accountants etc all get shafted by the same type of people, guess you could call them cuckoo investors. Welcome to the new spivocracy.
 
Well there has been a similar situation develop with Metrum Acoustics. Cees Ruijtenberg the founder of Metrum Acoustics wanted to retire and sold the business mid-2018 to other buyout investors. It would seem their experience in running a successful electronics business may have been lacking. Its rumored that customer service and quality deteriorated possibly combined with cash flow issues.

In the meantime Cees I understand was approached by and old friend Lion Kwaaijtaal who wanted to expand his own business (which historically supplied Metrum with metalwork) and asked Cees to become his chief electronics designer, and so Sonnet Audio was born.

When Metrum went into liquidation there was quite a public spat in the Netherlands between them and Sonnet claiming that Ruijtenberg had stolen their market and as was trading on their IP. I hear now that Ruijtenberg has reacquired Metrum so things have gone full circle!
 
Howdy Fellas,

Just wanted to lament the (current) death of Kralk Audio. Unlike most intra-company spats, in which you cannot tell which side is which, Kralk seems to have had a fairly civil divorce. The unfortunate victim was the kids--the loudspeakers themselves--which showed tremendous promise and a seemingly unbeatable VFM.

The explanation which was on the website seemed completely fair, but it just seems to me such a waste that such elegant, clever, and value-heavy designs are now lost and unavailable.

Does anyone have any intel as to whether this company might be re-started?

Thanks,
 
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