A fortnight ago, Thinius Managing Director Andreas Kühn told YACHT online that he wanted to reorganise his financially troubled company with the help of a consultant. How this was to be achieved was still unclear at the time - and remains so to this day. Despite repeated requests, Kühn failed to provide the restructuring concept that he himself had announced. Most recently, he stopped answering phone calls and emails altogether.
In fact, the problems seem to be getting worse. Last weekend, public notices for a forced sale on 6 December appeared on three ships still ashore at the Thinius base in Lemmer. In the meantime, the berths that Thinius had rented for its fleet in the local marina are to be used by a competing charter company.
The payment difficulties, which Kühn himself had admitted to, apparently continue unchanged. Contrary to the Thinius boss's statement to YACHT that he wanted to take care of compensating affected customers as soon as possible, another charter skipper was damaged at the end of October.
As in previous cases, the details of which are available to YACHT, Kühn retained the deposit for a cruise on Mallorca, although he was unable to provide a boat. The money has not yet been refunded. He also failed to inform the customer of the situation in good time - even though the customer had made several enquiries. It was only one day before departure, on 28 October, that Kühn informed him in a few short sentences that he was unable to arrange a boat. "I'm sorry, chartering is impossible," he wrote, and that he, Kühn, would have to "live with the consequences". He did not even mention the possibility of a refund of the deposit paid.
Meanwhile, following the publication of YACHT about the problems at Thinius, other affected customers came forward, whose advance payments Andreas Kühn had also not forwarded properly according to their account. This contradicts Kühn's assertion to the editorial team that there were only a few cases in which these problems occurred. Overall, the damage could run into tens of thousands.
Kühn himself had recently declared himself "insolvent" in an email to a debtor. When YACHT published this statement online, however, he revised his statement and instead only spoke of temporary "payment difficulties". Whether his group of companies can be saved seems more doubtful than ever after the recent events.
