EK has major financial problems, does not pay employees, slanders and owes partners

EK Water Blocks, EKWB, EK Cooling Solutions, EK Cooling or just EK. These names are associated with a company that has more than twenty years of history and an established position in the world of water coolers. However, after two decades of existence, the company’s good reputation and economy are falling apart. The company consists of two units: Management in Slovenia, where the company was founded in 2003, and the American branch of EK Cooling Solutions.

Although it might seem that the market for water coolers must only flourish with the increasing energy requirements of processors in recent years, the opposite is true. Although the consumption of processors is increasing, at the same time their potential for overclocking is decreasing, so to get performance above the level of the factory configuration, buying a water cooler is not very worthwhile. In the segment of personal computers, interest in notebooks continues to grow at the expense of desktop solutions. In addition, interest in prefabricated assemblies is growing proportionally compared to the sale of components (where higher user interest can be expected for superior cooling).

(EC)

Of course, these events concern all manufacturers, so why does EK have problems? The company is not equipped with practically any production capacities of its own, it mostly only designs products and outsources production to partner companies. However, they have some minimum order volumes, so EK has no choice but to take these volumes and pay. The problem is that the drop in demand leaves EK with a large amount of products in stock. Which is a rather fundamental problem given the breadth of her portfolio. It currently offers 230 water blocks, 40 water cooling kits, 85 tanks, 40 pumps, 73 radiators and 212 products from the accessories category.

The company has recently stopped paying partners or is paying late, employees have not seen a paycheck for four months, and one who described the situation at the company on LinkedIn was fired. The editors of the GamersNexus website, which investigated the situation and drew attention to the state of the company, further registered that when the management of the company found out about the upcoming media coverage, they paid off some debts.

However, it is not only the relations between management and employees and between the company itself and its partners that are problematic, but also between the two (say) divisions of the company. The Slovenian and American divisions accuse each other of stealing company assets. The energy of managers is probably devoted to slander, mutual accusations, or intimidation of employees rather than to a real solution to the problem.

Users further point out that other reasons for EC’s current state may lie in the fact that the company’s management has decided to bet on an established position and reputation instead of product quality, which has recently been declining while prices are rising. Some loyal customers have switched to brands such as Alphacool (which they consider to be of higher quality) or perhaps Bykski (which they consider to be cheaper).