What happened to Rock? Custom PC interviews former Chief Executive

Posted at: Friday 4th July 2008

From boom to bust, we get the lowdown on what went wrong at Rock Group - and how everything is looking better for the future - from CEO, Nick Boardman.

CPC: Who is the company that has bought Rock now? What is the nature of the transaction? Have they invested in the company or bought it outright?

Nick: Stone Group, owners of Stone Computers and Compusys, is the UK’s largest privately owned computer manufacturer. Established in 1991, Stone has over 250 full time employees including its own on-site engineers, although during the busy back to school season the headcount swells to over 300 with temporary labour included. The main thrust of its business is the supply of Stone branded Desktop and Laptop PCs to Education, Emergency Services and the Public sector, hence many of CPC's readers may never have heard of them. This year the group turnover will be in excess of £70 million.

Following the decision to put Rock Group PLC into administration, Stone outbid rivals to secure the brand, goodwill, stock and certain assets of Rock Group PLC in order to resume normal trading of Rock ASAP. In the near future, all laptops made by the group will be Rock branded, whether they are for Rock’s traditional consumer base or the group’s public sector customers.

CPC: Why did you decide to go with the Stone group?

Nick: I decided to personally support the Stone bid, and join the company as a director, as being the largest player in the UK they have the people and resources to support rock to the full. Stone, for example, is Intel’s largest partner in the UK and has their full backing for new product launches and marketing support. As Rock is renowned for being an industry leader (we won Custom PC's Best Laptop and PC Manufacturer award in 2007 for instance) we deemed this relationship very important and believe it will assist us in remaining ahead of the game and the leading adopter of new technologies, in turn helping us to deliver to our customers the very best their money can buy.

As mentioned previously, Stone boasts an army of on site engineers - many will know that Rock has previously been awarded many accolades for our service and support due to our unique 3 year comprehensive international warranty. We hope that our relationship with Stone will open up new opportunities to provide our customers with next day on site support, making our after sales service a hard act to follow indeed.

CPC: Can you confirm that no customers lost money?

Nick: Yes, I can confirm that no consumers have lost out as a result of this restructure. All warranties are being fully honoured as you would expect, but Stone will also honour any outstanding orders that were paid for but not yet received (other than those customers protected by their credit card cover) The fact that no consumer has lost out in anyway is unprecedented, and to me underlies Stone’s core values of always putting the customer first.