After opening a local subsidiary, parent company Zünd Systemtechnik AG has terminated its distribution contract with Starleaton after confirming the company is owed $833,947 by its former agent.

In the second of a three-part interview conducted at the recent FESPA exhibition in Amsterdam with Switzerland-based Zünd Systemtechnik AG executive, Lars Bendixen, who is responsible for the local market as well as the new Zünd Australia subsidiary, said the decision was made to end the contract after the announcement for the Zünd Australia subsidiary was made.

“Unfortunately this is a situation where there are no winners,” Bendixen told Sprinter in an exclusive interview.

“We are owned $833,947 and we have no interest in supplying any further hardware to Starleaton until the debt is cleared.

“We are still talking to Ben, but we have not been presented with any plans to reduce the debt and it is unlikely that we will.

“As a result, we have taken the decision to move on. It has been a hard lesson and we need to do what is best for the future and we decided to open the Zünd Australia subsidiary.

“We enjoyed happy times with Ben Eaton and Starleaton, but as a 40 year-old business with around 60 independent resellers we have never been in this situation before,” he said.

Zünd has confirmed it will work closely with the customers who paid deposits to Starleaton for cutting tables before the local distributor went into voluntary administration.

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