JMguitars
New member
After having visited Ceriatone's website (see Timex's post) and viewing the circuit board of Matchless Lightnings', an "itch" developed to obtain more info.
Enjoy some reading Matchless reading material.
Matchless tribute (fan) page: http://web.archive.org/web/20000829205917/pages.prodigy.net/paullemle/matchless.htm
AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL MATCHLESS FANS
FROM MARK SAMPSON
former president, Matchless LLC
Currently there is a lot of rumor, innuendos, half truths, and just plain old lies being circulated about the current state of Matchless, my involvement, and the reasons for its current state. The purpose of this letter is to clear the air and set the record straight.
I will attempt to do this through a brief history/timeline of the facts that led up to the closure of the company. Matchless was at its peak in mid 1997. It was at this time that our lease had expired. The decision was made by the partners of Matchless to purchase the building in Pico Rivera, rather than pay rent. We moved the factory in late June/ July. The move was expensive.
Within 60 days of the move, our biggest customer, a Japanese distributor, cancelled all orders due to the crash of the Yen. This meant we had lost our biggest cash customer overnight, with no warning and no hope of finding another due to the situation in Japan. This was the end of August/first of September 1997. By October, {within another 60 days}, the value of the dollar was so strong that we [were] no longer able to sell any significant quantity of product overseas, At this time this meant we had lost approximately 50% of our sale in a 90-120 day time frame of moving. We attempted to correct this situation by focusing our attention on U.S. sales.
Due to the timing though our efforts were unsuccessful. This was because spring time is the big time for amp sales. We struggled through and thought we were going to be able to turn the company in the spring. Come spring time though we were faced with the consequences of a lawsuit by a former employee, the details of which I am not at liberty to disclose. It is sufficient to say that the cost of this would be the final nails in the Matchless coffin. It was shortly before this point that I began asking for help from my partners. Matchless laid off employees in May due to its inability to meet payroll and other obligations. There was a partial callback of key employees in June and July. The overhead was such that at this point in time the company would not be able to recover. In June my partners sent a manager down to the factory to help. I did not know it at the time but she later informed me that she was sent with instructions to take over.
By September 1998 she had taken complete control of the business including all check-writing approval. This left me in the awkward spot of having the liability of controlling authority but without the muscle of the checkbook and managerial ability. It was for this reason and the promise of an infusion of much needed capitol that on October 22nd 1998 I signed over controlling interest in the company that I founded with Rick Perotta in May of 1989. I relinquished financial control in an attempt to save the company, and get all the creditors paid. None of which happened. I stayed on attempting to help manage Matchless but without the capital needed to buy parts we were unable to build many further units. Money was spent on overhead but not enough parts were purchased to allow the operations to be successful in turning the company around. When I saw how the situation was going, coupled with the increase in tensions between my partners and myself, by mutual agreement I resigned and turned over my keys to the facility on or about January 5th 1999. I stayed available as a paid phone consultant for a small fee until sometime around the first week of March 1999.
It was about this time {first week of March} when my partners decided to shut down the operations. Somehow during the period between January and March the electricity way shut off due to non payment of the bill. This was a very unfortunate set of circumstances due to the fact that the computers were always on so that my partner's management staff could modem in and work on the financial data. When the electricity was turned back on all of the data became scrambled. The data recovery was unsuccessful. Consequently much of the financial data has been lost or so I have been told.
There has never been any attempt by me to hide any data, I have nothing to hide. All of the information in this letter can be corroborated by the former employees for those interested. Sometime in mid April of 1999 I had my last meaningful phone call from my sctiior partner. There was a very brief call in June of 1999 only to reaffirm our October 22nd 1998 agreement. I remained at the same address and phone number for a year hoping that he would put Matchless back together. However it was just not to be. I was forced to move in April of 2000. When I was forccd to move after nearly a year of waiting I gave up hope on Matchless being put back together. I tried my best to fix the situation. but my best was not good enough.
I hope all of the Matchless Owners, Dealers and Vendors will accept my deepest, most sincere, heartfelt apologies. To all of you: Good Tones, and have fun in the future.
Sincerely,
Mark Sampson
Enjoy some reading Matchless reading material.
Matchless tribute (fan) page: http://web.archive.org/web/20000829205917/pages.prodigy.net/paullemle/matchless.htm
AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL MATCHLESS FANS
FROM MARK SAMPSON
former president, Matchless LLC
Currently there is a lot of rumor, innuendos, half truths, and just plain old lies being circulated about the current state of Matchless, my involvement, and the reasons for its current state. The purpose of this letter is to clear the air and set the record straight.
I will attempt to do this through a brief history/timeline of the facts that led up to the closure of the company. Matchless was at its peak in mid 1997. It was at this time that our lease had expired. The decision was made by the partners of Matchless to purchase the building in Pico Rivera, rather than pay rent. We moved the factory in late June/ July. The move was expensive.
Within 60 days of the move, our biggest customer, a Japanese distributor, cancelled all orders due to the crash of the Yen. This meant we had lost our biggest cash customer overnight, with no warning and no hope of finding another due to the situation in Japan. This was the end of August/first of September 1997. By October, {within another 60 days}, the value of the dollar was so strong that we [were] no longer able to sell any significant quantity of product overseas, At this time this meant we had lost approximately 50% of our sale in a 90-120 day time frame of moving. We attempted to correct this situation by focusing our attention on U.S. sales.
Due to the timing though our efforts were unsuccessful. This was because spring time is the big time for amp sales. We struggled through and thought we were going to be able to turn the company in the spring. Come spring time though we were faced with the consequences of a lawsuit by a former employee, the details of which I am not at liberty to disclose. It is sufficient to say that the cost of this would be the final nails in the Matchless coffin. It was shortly before this point that I began asking for help from my partners. Matchless laid off employees in May due to its inability to meet payroll and other obligations. There was a partial callback of key employees in June and July. The overhead was such that at this point in time the company would not be able to recover. In June my partners sent a manager down to the factory to help. I did not know it at the time but she later informed me that she was sent with instructions to take over.
By September 1998 she had taken complete control of the business including all check-writing approval. This left me in the awkward spot of having the liability of controlling authority but without the muscle of the checkbook and managerial ability. It was for this reason and the promise of an infusion of much needed capitol that on October 22nd 1998 I signed over controlling interest in the company that I founded with Rick Perotta in May of 1989. I relinquished financial control in an attempt to save the company, and get all the creditors paid. None of which happened. I stayed on attempting to help manage Matchless but without the capital needed to buy parts we were unable to build many further units. Money was spent on overhead but not enough parts were purchased to allow the operations to be successful in turning the company around. When I saw how the situation was going, coupled with the increase in tensions between my partners and myself, by mutual agreement I resigned and turned over my keys to the facility on or about January 5th 1999. I stayed available as a paid phone consultant for a small fee until sometime around the first week of March 1999.
It was about this time {first week of March} when my partners decided to shut down the operations. Somehow during the period between January and March the electricity way shut off due to non payment of the bill. This was a very unfortunate set of circumstances due to the fact that the computers were always on so that my partner's management staff could modem in and work on the financial data. When the electricity was turned back on all of the data became scrambled. The data recovery was unsuccessful. Consequently much of the financial data has been lost or so I have been told.
There has never been any attempt by me to hide any data, I have nothing to hide. All of the information in this letter can be corroborated by the former employees for those interested. Sometime in mid April of 1999 I had my last meaningful phone call from my sctiior partner. There was a very brief call in June of 1999 only to reaffirm our October 22nd 1998 agreement. I remained at the same address and phone number for a year hoping that he would put Matchless back together. However it was just not to be. I was forced to move in April of 2000. When I was forccd to move after nearly a year of waiting I gave up hope on Matchless being put back together. I tried my best to fix the situation. but my best was not good enough.
I hope all of the Matchless Owners, Dealers and Vendors will accept my deepest, most sincere, heartfelt apologies. To all of you: Good Tones, and have fun in the future.
Sincerely,
Mark Sampson
