Help Is Zeintec Out Of Business?

[akoako]

Have anyone ordered or have contacted Zeintec recently?

I've ordered early last fall with a long trail of promises for order shipment, but until now nothing was delivered to me yet. Starting from last week I noticed that all emails were returned.

Have anyone know if they went out of business, or just problem with their email?

[wvicary]

Don't they have a phone number you could ring??

[akoako]

Don't they have a phone number you could ring??

I've tried but no one answer the phone.....

Have anyone been able to contact them recently?

[boxstatops]

I fear the worst! I am the Australasia distributor and I too have been waiting for stock since January.

If you have already contacted Daniel in Delaware, please keep in touch with him as we are launching some strategies to try and protect (as best we can) unsecured creditors positions.

[keithl]

NM

Edited May 3, 2010 by keithl

[hokunohoaupuni]

I hope it hasn't gone out of business. I've been looking at that Zeintech top for quit awhile working on saving up for one.

[Wayne R. Dempsey]

Hmm, I feature that in my book too (see Figure 3 here, for those who have no idea what we're all talking about here: http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/69-BODY-Hardtop_Installation/69-BODY-Hardtop_Installation.htm). That would be a shame if they are no longer available. I think they were made in South Africa, right?

-Wayne

[keithl]

Hmm, I feature that in my book too (see Figure 3 here, for those who have no idea what we're all talking about here: http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/69-BODY-Hardtop_Installation/69-BODY-Hardtop_Installation.htm). That would be a shame if they are no longer available. I think they were made in South Africa, right?

-Wayne

I wouldn't feature them. They have stolen money from me and apparently quite a few other people.

[rogerkeith]

I have it on good authority that Zeintec ceased business on April 30. If customers have paid money up front for a top,or anything else for that matter, they will need to contact a lawyer in South Africa to make a claim on the company. The future is unknown and it is a great shame that such a promising product will no longer be available. The moulds and patterns would be worth a small fortune but much expertise is required to produce a quality product from GRP. I think the company became obsessed and distracted by product development (very expensive) and did not spend enough time on marketing the tops which should have been the product to produce their "bread and butter".

[keithl]

I have it on good authority that Zeintec ceased business on April 30. If customers have paid money up front for a top,or anything else for that matter, they will need to contact a lawyer in South Africa to make a claim on the company. The future is unknown and it is a great shame that such a promising product will no longer be available. The moulds and patterns would be worth a small fortune but much expertise is required to produce a quality product from GRP. I think the company became obsessed and distracted by product development (very expensive) and did not spend enough time on marketing the tops which should have been the product to produce their "bread and butter".

Actually I think it is a shame they stole money from people by continuing to take orders when they knew they had no intention of delivering the products.

[rogerkeith]

I don't know that they did in fact take orders with the knowledge they could not fulfill them. I think it was more a case of not having adequate working capital to produce the tops in sufficient numbers to meet the orders. Let's face it, Zeintec has only sold between 300 and 400 tops in over 4 years! That equates to a world market penetration of about 0.13%! I SUSPECT this low sales rate prompted them into (premature) product expansion and development in areas such as, Zeinvents, Zeinwings, customised Boxster body panels and the R& D for that Ford GT 40 replica which must have been an incredible drain on funds to say the least!

No doubt if the company finally folds, the many moulds etc. will be offered for sale to meet creditor demands. This could be tempting to those who may consider the possibility of continuing to manufacture the Zeintops. However, a word to anyone giving this any thought at all. Fibreglass fabrication is highly labour intensive as 90% of the process is done by hand. CHEAP skillful labour is essential if the product is to be made to a high quality at a price which will attract enough buyers. This cuts out many parts of the world as you would appreciate. I am monitoring the South African court lists on a daily basis to see if the Zeintec name pops up at all.

Edited May 12, 2010 by rogerkeith

[keithl]

I don't know that they did in fact take orders with the knowledge they could not fulfill them.

They took "orders" and money from people on the day before they closed their business.

What do you think? Do you think they had any intention of fulfilling them?

[rogerkeith]

You really do surprise me with that one as all emails directly to the company were being returned as "Undeliverable..unroutable"as early as April 15. However, it is a mystery as to what happens to emails sent via the Website as I have sent quite a number. If YOU were one of those who ordered and paid for any product or you know someone who did, please get in touch with me

at boxstatops@adam.com.au giving me the details. The same goes for ANYBODY out there in a similar position. If you paid by credit card you may have a chance.

I can tell you that I have reports that there ARE people at the premises but just what they are up to, I don't know.

I am in touch with a lawyer and we are working out the best way to deal with this situation. If it is any consolation, I have $20,000 worth of outstanding orders which I have paid for, as the Australasian distributor.......!!

[seafeye]

Someone is still selling them on Ebay....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-986-Boxster-Hartop-Zeintop-Cayman-style-Hardtop-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem29fe2a555aQQitemZ180357846362QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

[02chuck]

I emailed the person on eBay about where he was getting them from.

He stated he was getting them from another vendor.

Question is....who is that?

Chuck

[Blaine Sellie]

Dear bcsellie,

Hi, we are working on getting from another supplier and more glass and price options let me know yuor e-mail and i will keep you up to date

- xtrememotorcars

response from ebayer

[keithl]

Dear bcsellie,

Hi, we are working on getting from another supplier and more glass and price options let me know yuor e-mail and i will keep you up to date

- xtrememotorcars

response from ebayer

I don't know who there other supplier is, but I do know they were screwed over by Zeintec too.

[rogerkeith]

I'm afraid there IS no other supplier. The tops were made exclusively by Zeintec in South Africa. If you are one of the many who have paid for tops and not received them, please contact me on boxstatops@adam.com.au if you haven't already done so. I am the Australasian distributor and I have legal action underway to attempt recovery of money.

[rogerkeith]

Zeintec is to go into voluntary liquidation according to an undertaking made in April by the Director, Christoph Zeinecker. The company has little or no assets and owes money to many creditors both secured and unsecured. I am afraid we have no reason to think we will ever recover the money we paid to the company for Zeintops and other products. For more information please contact me on boxstatops@adam.com.au

[seafeye]

Anyone have info about who to contact about buying the molds?

The product is great and i think if they were made in the USA the price would be cheaper and shipping a lot cheaper.

I would buy them if available....

[Stefan]

Anyone considering signing some agreement with a far-off person in an attempt to recover their money should first have a local trusted lawyer go over the contract with a fine-tooth comb. There are ways they could make you forfeit your right to recover your money if they "try" and fail.

No offense intended to anyone involved, just be careful folks.

[Wayne R. Dempsey]

Right - if someone were to approach them about buying the plans and rights to the tops, then Pelican would be more than happy to sell them on the site. It's a neat idea I would hate to see die away.

-Wayne

[rogerkeith]

Once a liquidator had been appointed and he assesses just what the company owes and owns, he will probably hold an auction for all items which are to be sold. The moulds and plugs are probably the most valuable assets. However, to transport them would be a very risky exercise as any breakages or cracks would render them useless. To have them crated and sent half way around the world would be a very courageous undertaking! The manufacture of tops from these moulds is highly specialised work and it is 99% manual labour. I feel sure that is why Christoph Zeinecker, the director, left Germany and set up in South Africa where labour costs are much lower. If it was profitable to make them in Europe I'm sure he would have stayed there. I am guessing but I would say that there are at least 4 moulds required for each top and possibly more (two outer and two inner for the main top and the hatch). The hard part is putting them all together!

The best idea would have a local company, say a successful auto crash shop with GRP experience take it on and run it alongside their current business on a "made to order" basis. I know for a fact that Zeintec shipped out 37 tops in the last half of 2009 and if they had made all they should have, the total would have probably reached 50. There were NONE shipped in 2010. This is hardly enough to keep the business running as a "stand alone"enterprise. It will be interesting to see just what does happen to the moulds but any LOCAL entrepreneur is going to have a hell of a job convincing the likes of us, that we can confidently order and SEND MONEY for these, given our experiences!! His best chance is to supply a few to distributors throughout the world and let THEM sell them, omitting ANY reference to the African continent in marketing strategies! The damage has been done.

Edited May 31, 2010 by rogerkeith

[Wayne R. Dempsey]

Once a liquidator had been appointed and he assesses just what the company owes and owns, he will probably hold an auction for all items which are to be sold. The moulds and plugs are probably the most valuable assets. However, to transport them would be a very risky exercise as any breakages or cracks would render them useless. To have them crated and sent half way around the world would be a very courageous undertaking! The manufacture of tops from these moulds is highly specialised work and it is 99% manual labour. I feel sure that is why Christoph Zeinecker, the director, left Germany and set up in South Africa where labour costs are much lower. If it was profitable to make them in Europe I'm sure he would have stayed there. I am guessing but I would say that there are at least 4 moulds required for each top and possibly more (two outer and two inner for the main top and the hatch). The hard part is putting them all together!

The best idea would have a local company, say a successful auto crash shop with GRP experience take it on and run it alongside their current business on a "made to order" basis. I know for a fact that Zeintec shipped out 37 tops in the last half of 2009 and if they had made all they should have, the total would have probably reached 50. There were NONE shipped in 2010. This is hardly enough to keep the business running as a "stand alone"enterprise. It will be interesting to see just what does happen to the moulds but any LOCAL entrepreneur is going to have a hell of a job convincing the likes of us, that we can confidently order and SEND MONEY for these, given our experiences!! His best chance is to supply a few to distributors throughout the world and let THEM sell them, omitting ANY reference to the African continent in marketing strategies! The damage has been done.

Right. 50 tops a year at $5K apiece is not a tremendous amount of money for a small business. You'd have to sell a few thousand of them at $2500 apiece to probably make a significant dent. In terms of selling them, that is what a good retailer does - instill trust into the relationship. People like to order from a good, reliable retailer because the experience is repeatable with no headaches and problems most of the time. We deal with 250+ vendors, some multi-million dollar companies, but also many who are little guys who have created some neat products in their garage. There really are no issues like this one with Zeintec...

-Wayne

[rogerkeith]

Once a liquidator had been appointed and he assesses just what the company owes and owns, he will probably hold an auction for all items which are to be sold. The moulds and plugs are probably the most valuable assets. However, to transport them would be a very risky exercise as any breakages or cracks would render them useless. To have them crated and sent half way around the world would be a very courageous undertaking! The manufacture of tops from these moulds is highly specialised work and it is 99% manual labour. I feel sure that is why Christoph Zeinecker, the director, left Germany and set up in South Africa where labour costs are much lower. If it was profitable to make them in Europe I'm sure he would have stayed there. I am guessing but I would say that there are at least 4 moulds required for each top and possibly more (two outer and two inner for the main top and the hatch). The hard part is putting them all together!

The best idea would have a local company, say a successful auto crash shop with GRP experience take it on and run it alongside their current business on a "made to order" basis. I know for a fact that Zeintec shipped out 37 tops in the last half of 2009 and if they had made all they should have, the total would have probably reached 50. There were NONE shipped in 2010. This is hardly enough to keep the business running as a "stand alone"enterprise. It will be interesting to see just what does happen to the moulds but any LOCAL entrepreneur is going to have a hell of a job convincing the likes of us, that we can confidently order and SEND MONEY for these, given our experiences!! His best chance is to supply a few to distributors throughout the world and let THEM sell them, omitting ANY reference to the African continent in marketing strategies! The damage has been done.

Right. 50 tops a year at $5K apiece is not a tremendous amount of money for a small business. You'd have to sell a few thousand of them at $2500 apiece to probably make a significant dent. In terms of selling them, that is what a good retailer does - instill trust into the relationship. People like to order from a good, reliable retailer because the experience is repeatable with no headaches and problems most of the time. We deal with 250+ vendors, some multi-million dollar companies, but also many who are little guys who have created some neat products in their garage. There really are no issues like this one with Zeintec...

-Wayne

The feedback I was getting at my "launch"of the Zeintop during March this year was that it was very fairly priced. I had it installed on my own Boxster show car and presented it at the "Adelaide Clipsal 500" 4 day motor racing carnival in South Australia which was attended by 272,000 patrons. The site cost me a fortune! I am not going to go into the nuts and bolts here of how I came up with the figure but I had it for sale at AUD$4950 (approx US$4200 at the time). This pricing was based on my importing 6 tops by sea mail. I had virtually sold the 6 tops I had on order following this promotion but we all know I never received them. I had to provide all the boxes and packaging etc for on-forwarding which doesn't come cheaply but I was quite satisfied at the return I was getting at the end of the day. The boxes for these things measure 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres by 500 centimetres and the whole kit and caboodle weighs around 55 kilos! The boxes alone were costing me US$35 each plus the packaging.

Manufacturing costs are critical in order to produce a product in GRP which can be sold by a reseller at a reasonable price and still return a fair margin.

Finally, I can tell you that the tops, hardware and assembly instructions do have their shortcomings which I was addressing with Zeintec on a progressive basis. I was somewhat surprised at some of these, considering they had been in production for 4 years!