Denmark: From Sunmark to Sunmark Solutions
Because of a lack of turnover, Danish collector manufacturer and turnkey solar thermal system supplier Sunmark had to file for bankruptcy on 10 February 2014. “We had had a hard time with the competition during public tenders, but also some difficulties with bad quality products from Danish and Swedish subcontractors, which had created some huge costs to Sunmark,” Hans Grydehøj, CEO, co-founder and one of the two shareholders of Sunmark, explains. “In the end, it was not possible to come to an agreement with the bank, and filing for bankruptcy was the only solution.” The photo shows a district heating plant installed in the Danish town of Oksbøl in 2010.
Photo: Sunmark
But the bankruptcy didn’t mean the end of Sunmark’s activities: Hans Grydehøj founded Sunmark Solutions on 21 February, and this company purchased most of the assets of Sunmark, Christian Jul Madsen, Sunmark’s officially appointed insolvency agent, confirmed. The CEO of newly founded Sunmark Solutions is Grydehøj. The second Sunmark founder, Nick Andreas Omann, did not participate in the new venture.
New headquarter in Marstal
“We had several offers, but the one from Sunmark Solutions was the most attractive one,” Madsen says. The company took over the shares of the collector manufacturer in Vietnam, as well as the shares of the joint-venture Pampa Elvira Solar in Chile – both subsidiaries of former mother company Sunmark. “Only the Danish holding company was bankrupt. The limited companies in Vietnam and Chile were not in financial difficulties,” Madsen explains. According to the trustee, it will take another 12 months to completely close down Sunmark. The suppliers were not officially informed about the bankruptcy process, because the company was not obligated to do so according to Danish bankruptcy law.
“We had several offers, but the one from Sunmark Solutions was the most attractive one,” Madsen says. The company took over the shares of the collector manufacturer in Vietnam, as well as the shares of the joint-venture Pampa Elvira Solar in Chile – both subsidiaries of former mother company Sunmark. “Only the Danish holding company was bankrupt. The limited companies in Vietnam and Chile were not in financial difficulties,” Madsen explains. According to the trustee, it will take another 12 months to completely close down Sunmark. The suppliers were not officially informed about the bankruptcy process, because the company was not obligated to do so according to Danish bankruptcy law.
“Sunmark Solutions will continue Sunmark’s business activities,” Grydehøj confirms. The CEO of the newly founded company Sunmark Solutions wants to focus “on turnkey industrial solutions on export markets and, of course, on the market of turnkey-installations for district heating systems.” Sunmark Solutions has also taken over the former Sunmark website and will adjust the domain’s content over the coming weeks.
“The only asset we did not take over in order to save costs was the HQ office building in the Danish town of Svendborg. Sunmark Solutions is headquartered in the former Sunmark workshop in Marstal,” Grydehøj says. According to the CEO, six of the twelves employees in Svendborg are now back to work in the new office in Marstal.
More information:
