Electrograph To Liquidate, Done In By Economy, Credit Crunch

Electrograph Systems late last week began to liquidate all inventory and assets, effectively ending the specialty distributor's 27 years of operation. According to a statement from Electrograph, the economic downturn and a lack of access to credit were responsible for Electrograph's demise.

"We are very disappointed with this outcome," said Electrograph CEO Alan Marc Smith in a statement. "There were a number of factors leading to this result,including poor economic conditions and constrained access to vendor credit. After exploring all other possible avenues for sustaining the company, including an unsuccessful sale process, our board decided this was the only path for our company."

Several phone and e-mail requests by ChannelWeb to multiple Electrograph sources went unreturned Monday morning.

According to the Hauppage, N.Y.-based distributor, it laid off 75 employees on Friday. A remaining 60 employees will stay on through what the statement described as "wind-down period." Electrograph's four warehouses, located in Hauppage; Middletown, N.Y.; Grove City, Ohio; and City of Industry, Calif., will also remain open and will ship product during that unspecified amount of time.

Privately held Electrograph was founded in 1982 and specialized in display products, including plasma, LCDs and LCD and DLP projectors.

The most recent vendor change to the distributor's line card came in March, when Electrograph began integrating Hitachi StarBoard products and Hitachi Professional Series projectors.

"After being with Electrograph for 22 years, I am deeply saddened by the result of this situation," said Electrograph President Sam Taylor in a statement. "We would like to thank our resellers for their business over the past 25 years, our vendor partners and other friends in the industry for their support. Above all, we thank our loyal employees for their hard work and dedication."