Is Modal Electronics bankrupt? Rumours of imminent demise unfounded
Alarms were raised yesterday as a filing with Companies House suggested that Modal Electronics Ltd had gone into administration. We spoke to Managing Director Christian Stahl, who says it’s part of a complex restructuring. So, thankfully, it looks like Modal has no need for bankruptcy protection.
Modal Electronics
News of a UK synthesizer firm going bankrupt is not that surprising given the state of our economy and the challenges presented since the triple whammy of Covid, supply chain issues and Brexit. So, while I was greatly saddened to see that Modal had appointed an administrator to wind down the company, it didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. However, I interviewed Modal founder Philip Taysom about a year ago, and he mentioned how they no longer had a physical office in the UK, and there was some talk of restructuring. So, rather than publishing the news immediately, we held off just to see if we could get some more facts. Gearnews was able to contact MD Christian Stahl this morning, and the fantastic news is that Modal Electronics are alive and well and has plans for the future, and this is all a bit of a misunderstanding.
According to Christian, Modal Electronics is going through a complex restructuring and has been for the last nine months. It will probably take another couple of months before it’s all sorted out. During this time and continuing into the future, Modal’s support of their products is uninterrupted. All staff have been retained, which was worked into the plans from the beginning.
Here’s a quote from Christian from a press release that should be made public later today.
This complex process of restructuring opens up undreamt-of opportunities for Modal Electronics to make the company more economical and even more consumer-friendly. With extensive concepts for new, exciting products, we want to continue to support and challenge the creativity of musicians in the coming years.
Good news
It’s such great news both in terms of synthesizer product and that the good people at Modal still have jobs. We saw the exciting new CARBON8 prototype at Superbooth this year, and the various forms of both the ARGON8 and COBALT8 are very well regarded and in plentiful supply. So, it has a solid product base and a new release to work towards.
If there are any further developments, we will update this article and link to the press release once it’s available.
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One response to “Is Modal Electronics bankrupt? Rumours of imminent demise unfounded”
Well, it’s good news, I suppose, but they totally bungled the Carbon8 launch! I saw the insolvency notice yesterday so I did a couple of searches for the Carbon8.
Major American retailers have the Carbon8 listed for pre-orders with ship dates in October and a price of $1099US. Yet I have not received an email from Modal or anyone else about the pre-orders. And there are only two demos of it on YouTube, apparently posted three weeks ago.
There’s one listing for the Carbon8 on Reverb, which claims to have been there for a month. The good news is that the machine sounds fantastic; if there was a Carbon8M I’d have signed up for a pre-order.