News that Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc has filed a voluntary Chapter 11 reorganisation petition has caused widespread surprise – but as the Atlanta modem maker has never gone for a public flotation, its figures are a complete closed book, and it is no longer the force in modems that it once was. The company included in the filing the Practice Peripherals unit that recently merged with Hayes. Hayes blames a short-term cash shortage brought on primarily by operating problems responding to dramatic increases in demand for its products. It reveals that consolidated sales in fiscal 1994 exceeded $250m and current revenues and unit sales are at an all-time high. It assures that assets exceed its liabilities – each totals over $100m – and it expects to propose a plan of reorganisation to the court shortly. Dennis Hayes told the Wall Street Journal that the company’s problems began in April, when its broad expansion plan began to produce sharply higher demand for its modems and other computer products. It had to go to subcontractors, but these were not able to ramp up production fast enough, leaving Hayes with a huge parts and materials backlog that it couldn’t pay for.
