Home > Industry > Appointment & Jobs > EXCLUSIVE:CEDIA Installer Group Liquidation Woes Revealed

An investigation by ChannelNews has revealed that the directors behind BSR Group a Brisbane based custom installer Company have been the principle executives linked with three Companies that have been placed into liquidation since 2015.

The three Companies are Digital Residence, Pure Innovations and Look & Listen which they took over earlier this year after that Company was placed into liquidation.

Picture shows the directors of BMR Group are far right Brendon Cousemacker and next to him Mathew Manalis.

The directors of BMR Group are Mathew Manalis and Brendon Cousemacker.

When Digital Residence run by Manalis and Cousemacker went into liquidation in February of this year the Company had debts of $808, 136, however the accountant for the Company told Liquidators that he had “never” prepared accounts for the business since the business was established.

According to Liquidator James Imray of Rogers Reidy the Digital Residence business was poorly run.

He is now working alongside Craig Samson the former CEO of CEDIA solution provider Look and Listen which was acquired by BMR Group after being placed into liquidation last month.
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Samson has also been described as a solution provider whose business was “a shambles and poorly run”.

The Liquidator said that the reason that Digital Residence failed was because of “inadequate cash flow” and “high cash use”.

He also said that the business suffered because of “poor strategic management”.

Manalis who along with Brendon Cousemaker have also been linked with Pure Innovations a CEDIA member and residential custom installer Company that was placed into liquidation back in 2015.

According to a report prepared at the time by Robson Cotter Insolvency Group, the Companies Office holders at the time were Mathew Manalis, Brendon Cousemacker, Regan Webb and Aaron Gavan.

Manalis has told ChannelNews that he and Cousemacker resigned from the Company prior to the liquidator being appointed because of recently discovered borrowings, unknown debt with the tax office and problems over shareholdings.

He also claims that Aaron Gavin  “reneged” on a merger deal that would see the pair take control of the Company after forking out $180,000 which was the value of a custom install business called Concept Innovations that the pair were running prior to being made directors of Pure Innovations.

“We thought we owned the Company (Pure Innovations) he said”.

This is despite ASIC records showing that neither Manalis or Cousemacker being listed as shareholders in the failed Company.

Manalis claims that he was told, that he and his partner were set to be made shareholders but when they discovered that “the shareholdings had not been registered” they confronted Aaron Gavin who they claim, “had been taking money out of the Company unbeknown to them”.

It was later discovered when Roland Robinson was appointed as trustee of the estate of Aron Gavin that he had been trading while “insolvent”.  

Both directors quit Pure Innovations on the 19th of June 2015 one month before the Company was placed into liquidation. Digital Residence was registered as a business one month before the collapse of Pure Innovations.

Regan Webb a director of Pure Innovations has also been actively working at Digital Residence since the Company was founded.

He was also a director & unit holder of Pure Innovations Pty Ltd when it was liquidated in 2015.

According to the Liquidators report for Digital Residence the “Directors failed to provide information to the liquidator” at the time that he was conducting his investigation, into the failed business and that he was unable to get hold of any financial accounts.

He did indicate that business had leases for four Nissan Navara Utes and two Mercedes Benz vehicles.

He also said that his investigations into “Whether any phoenix activity occurred in respect of the Company’s business are ongoing”.

At the time of the Companies failure staff were owed $75,048 in Superannuation payments, BMR took over responsibility for this debt.

Manis told the liquidator in a telephone call that BMR Group paid the sum of $103,286 for the Digital Residence business. At the time the liquidator said that he was investigating whether the sale at the time was an “uncommercial transaction”.

He said that he asked Manalis to provide a copy of the sale contract.

The document provided he said, “Did not provide sufficient details on the assets included in the sale”.

Among the creditors for Digital Residence was Sonos, Multimedia Technology GoGetta Equipment Funding, The Westpac Bank, as well as BMR Group who claimed that they were owed $177K.

Today both Digital Residence and Look & Listen operate from the same 4 Higgs St, Albion QLD 4010 address.



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