Fantini Fraud?

[hais1273]

Back tracking to a thread from earlier in the year. I was party to an interesting conversation yesterday, and it would seem there are serious problems at the Fantini Factory. Messy. Lawyers. Divorce. Police. were all mentioned. I don't know, and really don't want to know the full in's and out's of the situation, but I can't imagine it will end well for anyone.

Except the lawyers of course.

 

[debra]

I don't know the ins and outs but a business has an inflow of money and that is used to build products. Rarely is there a trace of evidence that money coming in is actually used for exactly the order it should be "linked to". Companies may be overly optimistic about the future and think that when they get money now for things to be produced in the future and they use that money to keep working on earlier orders things will be alright in the end. And as long as the customers who order and pay something do receive the goods after they are produced that is often considered fine. But alas, it is also a scenario that may lead to bankruptcy when more old orders need to be fulfilled (which requires money) than new orders are coming in (which then does not bring in enough money)... and it is a fine line between "normal business practice" that may sometimes fail and deliberate "fraud".
What I do know is that once people start distrusting a company new orders will stop coming in, money will stop coming in and bankruptcy is then almost guaranteed. Trust is enormously important in the business world and often underrated.

 

[maugein96]

Wonder how the OP from Croatia fared on that one?

Emilio Allodi in London still appears to be selling Fantini accordions, although I believe somebody spoke to him as a result of the earlier post when he gave indication that he had been unable to make contact with Fantini. Don't know if that's still the case, and I would seriously doubt whether he would ever put a notice on his website to draw attention to the fact that Fantini was in dire straits, when he still had a significant number of their accordions in stock.

The Fantini/Allodi partnership seems to have been a fairly long standing one, and here's hoping Emilio comes out of this OK.

I've never actually dealt with him, but on the few occasions I've spoken to his staff on the phone they were extremely helpful.

 

[hais1273]

That ties in with my thoughts. Money is accepted for the production of "things" and due to other more pressing matters, it gets diverted to other uses. . But if the factory was on a hand to mouth basis anyway, any extra cost isn't going to be good.

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Fantini may well be in trouble, though I very strongly suspect that they are not alone. From what is easily observable, it certainly appears that the Italian Accordion Industry is in terminal decline. A detailed investigation is possible, but enough evidence already exists to warrant a careful approach from potential buyers.

A large percentage of "European" accordions are already built in China, and it is often unclear who owns the majority shareholdings of those brands. Motor cars, computers and a host of other everyday items are manufactured around the Pacific Rim, so it should come as no surprise to any of us when we learn that musical instrument manufacture has gone the same way.

I am fully aware of the sentimental considerations associated with this new reality, and that some may not be quite ready to accept the inevitable, but the writing is definitely on the wall.

Those wishing to purchase a new accordion have choices to make, not least of which involves the security of any money they are required to pay upfront. We know from these pages that some individuals have lost considerable sums of money when dealing directly with Italian manufacturers, so nobody here can claim that they were unaware of this disturbing trend.

Commercial greed, or good business sense? Whichever of those exigencies you think is responsible for the decline in European accordion manufacturing is probably right. Perhaps the two are inextricably linked.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.