14.01.2011

AFI GmbH appoints adminstrator

Hamburg based AFI GmbH has appointed an administrator- Karsten Tötter, after filing for protection under Germany’s insolvency laws on Wednesday.

The company which is not part of AFI in the UK, was founded by owner Günther Aust with the personal help and support of ex colleague David Shipman, who is also a major investor and chairman of AFI-Uplift.
Although there has never been a management or corporate connection between the two companies.

Aust started the new business following his departure from Lavendon’s German operation in 2002. He had started up, managed and built up Lavendon’s Prolift – later Zooom – business in the late 1990’s.
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Günther Aust in his Zooom days

The company operates from eight locations across Germany and also formed a joint venture in Romania in 2008.

German insolvency laws are closer to the UK bankruptcy laws than to the US Chapter 11. The administrator is now officially running the business which continues to operate as normal. She will be assessing it with regards to offering it for sale or restructuring it.

We spoke to Aust this morning but he preferred not to make an official statement, apart from saying that the business was continuing as normal and that he hoped that it would emerge from the process intact.

Given the shared name and previous associations - AFI-Uplift in the UK issued a brief statement this morning saying: “The administration of AFI GmbH will have no impact at all on AFI-Uplift. There are no financial, trading or legal relationships with this company or with any individuals connected to it.”

“David Shipman, AFI’s Chairman, was involved in setting up the company in 2003 but he is no longer a director of AFI GmbH, has no involvement in it, and all connections with AFI in the UK ended in 2008.”