Failed Sainsbury's In-store Advertising Compounds Credit Crunch Effect On Local Business

Dec. 11, 2008 - PRLog -- FAILED SAINSBURY'S IN-STORE ADVERTISING COMPOUNDS CREDIT CRUNCH EFFECT ON LOCAL BUSINESS

A newly opened Austrian snack-food restaurant is left to fight the credit crunch without a marketing budget after buying a year's worth of adverts on the local Sainsbury's in-store screens - screens which have since been switched off due to a legal and financial dispute with Sainsbury's. The responsible company, Firebrand Media Ltd, aka Retail Media Works Ltd, has gone into liquidation according to the receptionist answering the phone on their behalf, and the company selling and producing the adverts (Screen Media Group Ltd) denies responsibility for monies already paid.

Uka Summers, owner of "Imbiss Austrian beer food" in Seymour Place near the Marble Arch Sainsbury's in London, describes the devastating effect of the broken promises on her small company's finances: "The Sainsbury's advert was meant to inform the local community that we exist, and we raised the money through extra family investment. We kept expecting the advert to show any time on the screens in our local Sainsbury's, and we
continuously chased the person who sold it to us. Finally, at the end of November - just after the second installment of our payment for the year left our bank - we found out that this was never going to happen, and that we had wasted many weeks waiting and all the money we could spend on marketing. We have not reached the local community, and we are seriously struggling to survive in the current financial climate."

Imbiss had put a lot of thought into their marketing since they opened their doors in August - they were on Austrian national TV twice in prime time features, and every paper in Austria proudly brought the news of their opening. What's missing is the local London market, and they had planned on leafletting and newspaper adverts, until the Sainsbury's opportunity was put to them as a far more effective way - if it had gone live as promised, that is. Now the credit crunch bites, local offices are cancelling - or not even organising - their Christmas parties, and Imbiss's means to counteract the downturn are frozen in a dispute between giants.

Mrs Summers and her husband Ken hope to find other similarly affected businesses in order to tackle the complicated processes of recouping some of the losses together. "All we have from Screen Media and Firebrand is a receipt for our purchase, and apparently this constitutes a contract. We do not have the means to employ legal counsel, but perhaps if we find a few allies who are in the same boat, we can pool our knowledge and try to salvage something from this overwhelming situation. In the big scheme of things,
the money we are losing seems very little, and I doubt that we'll be on the top of the priority list for 'creditors to be paid', but to us this amount was vital. I do not know how to deal with liquidators, but if Imbiss doesn't get these funds back double-quick, we're going to find
out very soon, when our own family business enters this process."

More information is available from Uka Summers on uka@imbiss.co.uk (07971 455 847), Ken Summers on ken@imbiss.co.uk, or from the website www.imbiss.co.uk.
All pictures and graphics from this website may be copied, printed and published without further consent in connection with the above information.

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About Imbiss: "Imbiss Austrian beer food" serves authentic Austrian sausage specialities, freshly baked bread rolls, salads and sauerkraut, along with Stiegl beer from Salzburg (Goldbraeu + Weizen) on tap or bottled beers from other Austrian brewers. Austrian house wines, coffee and desserts are also available.