Christian Kettl, a young entrepreneur from Bavaria, has bought the AWN webshop, including the customer file, brand name, logo and inventory from the AWN central warehouse in Hamburg. Kettl has already been operating the webshops bootsholz.de and bootzubehoer.de under the umbrella of his company Oquip (the name stands for outdoor equipment) for several months.
New owner has been a sailor himself from an early age
According to the 33-year-old, taking over AWN was never the plan. But when the opportunity arose and the company was up for sale, the decision was made to continue the web shop. "We want to keep the brand name alive," says Kettl, who has been a sailor himself from an early age and can look back on several years of professional experience in e-commerce and digital marketing.
The company did not have the confidence to take over Niemeyer's branch business. However, in an interview with the YACHT editorial team, Kettl did not rule out the possibility of rebuilding a branch network at some point in the coming years.
First, however, the stock has to be moved from Hamburg to the Oquip warehouse in Fürstenzell near Passau, the web shop has to be reorganised and restocked, customer data integrated, logistics partners found and contracts concluded with suppliers. According to Kettl, the company will benefit from being able to build on numerous existing supplier relationships thanks to the two existing boat equipment web shops.
AWN customers were informed of the webshop takeover by newsletter this morning. They have the choice of whether their customer data is transferred to the new company. Anyone who does not want this can object.
Orders should be possible again in four to six weeks
The existing webshop is currently still available at awn.de. However, most of the products listed there are marked as sold out and, according to Kettl, it is no longer possible to order anything there. He assumes that he and his team will need around four to six weeks until the shop has been fully converted to the new company and orders can then be placed again.
Kettl could not yet say how large the future product range will be. However, the company will endeavour to offer products online that were previously only available in AWN branches. The entrepreneur promises that advice will not be neglected either. Two employees have been assigned to answer customer enquiries. The other employees will also be trained.
The Oquip team currently comprises a total of nine employees. A. W. Niemeyer recently employed more than 100 people, many of them in the nine branches. However, Kettl is also aware that he will have to increase staff if the AWN webshop picks up speed again immediately. He is optimistic that the company is well equipped for this and that it is easy to find suitable labour for warehousing and logistics in the region.
Store inventories are gradually being auctioned off- anyone can bid
While the webshop and therefore the "AWN" brand will survive, the fate of most of the branches and the Niemeyer headquarters in Hamburg is sealed. Only the Kiel branch will be continued by SVB. Everything else will be auctioned off.
The Austrian auction house Aurena will sell almost 20,000 items of store goods and equipment, including the vehicle fleet, to the highest bidder. The auction house's employees are currently cataloguing the AWN stock in Germany and Austria. The next auctions will take place on 23 June from 11.45 a.m. for the branch in Berlin-Adlershof and will continue on 28 June from 9.30 a.m. for the branch in Hamburg.
The hammer will be going down on all the remaining goods from the shops - from kayaks, inflatable boats and boat engines to navigation equipment, sailing clothing and yacht paint to spherical compasses and life rafts, according to Aurena.
Bids can be placed via the auction platform aurena.at after a one-off registration - whether private individual or company. The website also contains details of all auction locations, hammer price, viewing and collection dates.
Hamburg-based A. W. Niemeyer GmbH unexpectedly went into insolvency at the beginning of the year. The insolvency administrator was unable to find an investor to continue the company. As a result, the traditional company, which was founded in Hamburg in 1745 as a ship chandler, recently had to close for good.
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