JR Propo declare bankruptcy in Japan

[MattyB]

Sadly it appears a oft heard rumour is now coming true... JR Propo have very recently declared bankruptcy in Japan, with debts of ~$40m. Perhaps bits of their business will be picked up and retained a la Graupner, but it is still a sad day for a once great name in RC.

Extract from the Flying Giants posting...

Sadly previous rumours have proved to be true. Formal bankruptcy was filed for in Osaka Japan on 26th December:

Quote:

Japan Remote Control Co., Ltd. (Capital 3,600,000 yen, Higashi Osaka-shi Eiwa 2-2-12, Registration side = 392 Shirakibucho-cho Matsusaka city, Mr. Akiko Ezaki and 2 others). On the day of December 26 Osaka District Court received a decision to commence bankruptcy proceedings.

Link to the announcement (in Japanese): **LINK**

How or if this impacts on the RC-Depot organisation that's currently distributing JR brand products I've no idea. I'd have thought that the JR brand name and their intellectual property would be tied in with the bankruptcy dealings somehow?

Edited By MattyB on 30/12/2017 15:34:04

Edited By MattyB on 30/12/2017 15:38:51

[Frank Skilbeck]

Reading the press release by JR Americas, it looks like they moved their JR radio stuff to another company and then have made JR Propo bankrupt, thereby getting rid of the debt.

Probably a similar situation to the Graupner SJ radio line up after Graupner went bust.

[MattyB]

Indeed, I did not see that part on pg 1 of the thread initially - here is the link. What that means for future product development though is unclear - newcomers will not want to invest in a brand with such an uncertain future....

Edited By MattyB on 30/12/2017 15:42:55

[David Ovenden]

Given that the factory in Malaysia produces all the current JR gear and arrangements have been made to move ownership of rights to a new company there seems to be no reason the JR brand can't continue. However, it's a very tough time for most of the RC brands these days.

[Geoff S]

Posted by Frank Skilbeck on 30/12/2017 15:38:07:

Reading the press release by JR Americas, it looks like they moved their JR radio stuff to another company and then have made JR Propo bankrupt, thereby getting rid of the debt.

Probably a similar situation to the Graupner SJ radio line up after Graupner went bust.

That always seems to me to be a very morally dubious practice which leaves their legitimate creditors (who may be small operators) with very few resources to claim on. OK, it's good for we punters who still get to buy spares etc to keep our radios going but it still seems to be a dodgy practice to me.

The ony JR connection I have is the plug-in hole on the back of my Taranis so I'm relatively unaffected. In fact perhaps I'm part of the problem having chosen the Frsky route when I made the move to 2.4gHz.

Geoff

[David Ovenden]

[Peter Miller]

Looks like another example of the old "Whose turn is it to run the business this week"

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Don't profess to understand legalities of the business world, but it seems a very lopsided carry on. Long time J.R user as well.

[Paul Marsh]

JR Was one of the largest radio brands, and had loads in the past, JR Max 5's, JR APEX, X-347, PCM9,s 3810, etc. Not used JR for a while now, and when they said they were not making new sets anymore, think that was the beginning of the end.

R.I.P. JR.

[Don Fry]

Bottom line, if you were a supplier, would you supply the "new" company on credit. Unless without other options.

[Don Fry]

Re above post. I am harsh. I wish the new runners of the company well. JR have kept it's competitors honest for many years..

[KiwiKid]

Must have been a lot of staff affected by the recent goings on too. Hopefully they managed to relocate with the restructures. This is a somewhat haunting vid of what an RC closure looks like.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Dave Wilshere]

Nothing changes for us over what happened in August 2016. The factory continues making stuff and new products are being worked on...with long time JR employees involved.

JR Propo were effectively as design house and a legal agreement continues.

New servos are being developed (top range) and the new Rx's are due 1st qtr 2018.

[Devcon1]

That was a rather large enterprise, I do remember many of the products but out of my price range at the time.

I do like the music though.

[David Ovenden]

The good news in all this is that JR transmitters, receivers and servos look set to continue to be available.

I am looking forward to the new receivers Dave W mentions. I understand these new Extended Channel DMSS receivers will allow for up to 16 total PWM (standard) channel availability, while offering a redundancy receiver system. You use a 2nd "extending" rx (6ch and 8ch versions will be available) to give 12 or 16 outputs.

So it seems that the situation is not as gloomy as the thread title might suggest?

Edited By David Ovenden on 31/12/2017 01:35:33

[Old Geezer]

Video - as above - sad, sad, sad. Had a couple of Robbe soarers years ago, lovely quality but needed flying with, shall we say - commitment. When I graduated from "27" to "35" I bought a JR set - lovely - however going to "2.4", JR prices were beyond me. Seeing the premises that Robbe/JR products came out of, you can see why they weren't cheap, but unfortunately these days a lot of stuff is made down to a price, quality often being less important.

Need to stop now, before this becomes a rant - - - Nurse! Can I go back to bed now?

[David Ovenden]

Robbe was a German company that actually had nothing to do with JR radio.

IIRC Robbe were the European distributers for Futaba.

[cymaz]

 

 

Some me of the Robbe brand was bought from the administrator and turned into Avio Tiger

History

Edited By cymaz on 31/12/2017 08:46:18

[Solly]

I always understood that the parent company of JR Americas is Horizon Hobbies.....

[MattyB]

No, HH provided additional distribution and delivered the support on behalf of JR Americas, but that relationship ceased some time ago.

[PatMc]

Posted by Solly on 01/01/2018 11:12:44:

I always understood that the parent company of JR Americas is Horizon Hobbies.....

In the early years of 2.4GHz there was a collaboration between JR & Spektrum. Horizon Hobbies name was/is on the FCC certification of the DSM protocol in it's various generations whilst JR provided the basic hardware.
HH may have remained as the main or sole US distributor of JR but I think that may be the limit of the partnership.

Edited By PatMc on 01/01/2018 12:04:49

[MattyB]

Here is a copy of the announcement detailing the end of the agreement between JR and HH in the US in 2016.

[Frank Skilbeck]

And now JR Americas has severed it's ties with the company that had picked the manufacturing of JR radios, http://www.jramericas.com/news_feed.php?#newsid69

Not sure what this means for UK (and/or Europe)

Edited By Frank Skilbeck on 06/04/2018 20:24:52

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Easier with a link, Frank.

Edited By Martin Harris on 06/04/2018 20:29:37