Opti looks to sell up after administration

Barking-based Opti International UK, the notebook and OEM manufacturer, has been forced into voluntary administration after experiencing cashflow problems.

Sohail Raja, sales and marketing director of Opti, confirmed last week that administrators had been called into the Essex-based vendor. Opti, established in 1991, provided its OEM products to the likes of PC World, Dabs Direct and Simply Computers. It also had a number of large corporate clients including British Aerospace, Virgin, Shell and the Bank of England.

A representative of administrators Horwath, Clark, Whitehill and Co stated that Opti International went into administration on the afternoon of 8 June and a creditors' meeting will be held within three weeks. The trade creditors' debt was understood to be around #500,000. Opti's main creditors included Intel, Hitachi and Ricoh.

Albert Ingber, MD of Opti, revealed: 'The administration is voluntary - we'd had enough. There are a number of reasons for this. We were one of the few companies still offering call funding to those selling our products. Last year we spent $1 million. But these people were not selling enough of our products.'

He claimed that cashflow had also been a major problem for the company, maintaining that some companies took too long to pay.

Ingber added that Opti had also experienced problems due to returns from Dixons and that the launch of its own-brand notebook had not been as successful as expected. Dixons refused to comment.

The administrators are hoping to sell Opti's assets - #250,000 of stock and a #300,000 manufacturing facility.

David Atherton, managing director of Dabs Direct, said: 'We've only been involved with Opti International since February. We have not done a great deal of business with it.'