What's the story about Harman going bankrupt ?

[geek]

I hear people saying Quadrafire bought them out and some other saying Harman/Quadrafire were/are the same company and both got bought out by yet another company...

Is there any concern a Harman owner may have due to a stove company going bankruptcy ? (aside from the obvious assumptions)

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[TboneMan]

Yes both products are part of the same company.

http://www.hearthnhome.com/

As to their financial situation, I don't know.

Interesting, this unit is part of the larger HNI corporation - primarily business furniture.

 

[geek]

thanks tbone, I wonder if someone knows the financial details and for how long this is going....

A local dealer that sells Avalon told a friend to stir away from buying Quad or Harman due to the bankruptcy, obviously this dealer doesn't carry neither brand so he would be making very negative comments and all that.

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[pip3398]

Harman was purchased by Hearth N Home Tech about 1.5 yrs ago. They had to much inventory in 2006 because of ramped up production in 2005 after the hurricanes. Harman, Quadrafire, Heatnglo and Heatilator are all part of HHT which is part of HNI. Dane Harmon is still at Harmon and still runs the division but does not own it. Your support from Harmon is probably stronger now as HHT is the largest Hearth manufacturer.

 

[TboneMan]

A quick look:

HNI stock has a 52 week high of $34.37
52 week low of $7.70

Today it is up $1 (9%) at $12.46.

At least their parent company looks relatively sound.


I'm familiar with another one of the subsid's. in the furniture business. They make wood office furniture. Unfortunately for use (pellet users), they use all of their scrap and saw dust and buy other local scrap to their own energy needs.

 

[MCPO]

If a well known , high quality , highly regarded stove maker like Harman goes belly up there sure can`t be much hope for the rest of the industry .
Personally I think if the price of oil stays reasonable , the pellet industry is going to suffer immensely. Last year they staged a temporary but short lived comeback as a whole but it`s rarely what you did last year that counts . It`s what you are currently doing that matters.
Few if any of these companies can exist for long without a large parent ownership anyway.

 

[pip3398]

If a well known , high quality , highly regarded stove maker like Harman goes belly up there sure can`t be much hope for the rest of the industry .
Personally I think if the price of oil stays reasonable , the pellet industry is going to suffer immensely. Last year they staged a temporary but short lived comeback as a whole but it`s rarely what you did last year that counts . It`s what you are currently doing that matters.
Few if any of these companies can exist for long without a large parent ownership anyway.

Harman had 1 main reason for going under. They doubled their production capability in response to sudden spike in oil prices due to the hurricanes in 2005.
When the fall of 06 came around in a slowed hearth market, they had warehouses full of unsold product and a dealer market with the same problem. Dealers were selling what they had without reordering new product. You can't pay your loans with a warehouse full of inventory.
HHT bought them out in Oct of 2007 for 18 million to cover the debt. Dane did not want to take a chance of the company he started in his (Parents) garage going under. If he could have seen 08 coming, he probably would have found another way out of the mess.
HHT has spent quite a bit of additional money to increase production at Harmon and plans to continue growing the company. HNI's stock price going down is more related to office furniture sales in the toilet than Hearth product sales. Although HHT is the largest, it is only 10-20% of HNI's total sales.
This is information that I have received from my Quadrafire Rep. and believe it to be accurate.