By Ben Butler
AUSTRALIA'S largest independent record label, Shock, has been sold after hitting hard times, costing up to 40 warehouse jobs.
The sale to CD duplicator Regency Media will hurt the local music scene, as Shock's warehouse provided a stable source of employment for a clutch of Melbourne's rock musicians.
Dexter Holland, of Shock's The Offspring, performs at the Big Day Out in 1997.Credit: Nick Moir
But they will stop work in October, when Shock's distribution operations move to Regency's Sydney warehouse.
Regency managing director Fiona Horman declined to say how much the company had paid for Shock's business, but it is believed to be between $5 million and $10 million.
''We see it as a great thing that we've managed to save a like-minded music company and now it can continue on and flourish,'' she said.
Shock, founded in 1988, boomed in the 1990s as the rising tide of grunge and alternative rock delivered chart hits for artists such as The Offspring, whose album Smash became the company's first No. 1 in 1994.
It also built a solid roster of Australian artists, including masked shock rockers TISM and Australian Idol star Ricki-Lee Coulter.
But in June Shock's mounting financial problems forced it to close three subsidiaries, including its publishing arm, in a bid to save the group.
In a statement released yesterday, Shock chairman David Williams said the sale was due to ''the collapse of bank funding due to the global financial crisis and tough market conditions''.
A National Union of Workers spokesman said Shock's warehouse ''employed that niche market of local musicians and local artists''.
''The beauty of what Shock Records did was that it catered to the local music industry,'' the spokesman said.
''There was the ability for a lot of those workers to do things such as tour and record and so on - that sort of flexibility was allowed.''
Warehouse employees would get all their entitlements, he said. ''A lot of these workers have been there 10 years plus.''