Things continue to worsen for Salem, N.H.-based Mac dealer ComputerTown, as the company has closed its Nashua, N.H. location a week after suffering major losses and mounting debt, MacCentral has confirmed.
The Nashua store closing comes seven days after the closing of its Brookline, Mass. location. Some ten employees of the Nashua store have been dismissed. The only two branches remaining are the Phoenix, Ariz. and Salem, N.H. locations.
“We’re trying to keep our head above water and I can tell you it’s not fun,” Tom Jacobs, president of ComputerTown, told MacCentral last Friday. “We’re trying to find the right model that will keep us in business.”
Obviously the situation is worsening as highly reliable sources confirm the remaining locations could be closed by the end of the month, unless a buyer is found. The company’s catalog operation has also been shut down, sources report. In addition, the company has begun an inventory liquidation sale at all locations in an effort to clear stock and pay debts. The liquidation stock consists of open-box, new, refurbished and recently discontinued products from Apple as well as other third-party vendors.
Since July of last year, ComputerTown has been struggling to stay in business. In July, the Apple Specialist found financing to survive, but for some employees who were laid off, it was late September before they returned to a paying job.
The once profitable and thriving Macintosh dealer faces monumental problems of paying off debt to inventory finance company, Finova Group Inc., reported to be in the hundreds of thousands. “I’ll be candid with you, we’re going through some tough financial times with our lender,” Jacobs said. “We need to pay off the debt we owe them and find a new lender to finance our inventory of product.”
Even if ComputerTown is successful in surviving, part of the problem is finding new financing to pay for equipment until it is sold to customers. With Finova near bankruptcy and exiting the computer financing business, few other lenders are available for ComputerTown and other Mac dealers to turn to for up-front cash.
“Even if we pay off this debt to Finova, it’s becoming almost impossible to find other lenders,” Jacobs said. “We’re out on a limb and were looking for a new lender.”