PIAS, the Beggars Group and Warp have released statements to update the public, after the fire on Monday night that destroyed Enfield’s Sony DADC warehouse and the entire stock held there by PIAS Distribution.
In a statement by founder and CEO Kenny Gates, PIAS emphasised that they plan to resume shipping of stock to stores by next week, and thanked people for their words of support and offers of help since the blaze.
"It is extremely important for everyone to understand that [PIAS] has no warehouse as such in the UK," said Gates on the PIAS site, "and that [PIAS] sub-contracts its physical distribution with SONY DADC in Enfield and it is their warehouse which unfortunately went down in flames." He also confirmed that, thankfully, no PIAS staff had been hurt in the blaze.
"Sony DADC have been remarkably quick and efficient to put together a contingency plan that should allow us to ship to stores sometime next week," he continued. "The PIAS team has been working around the clock to limit the damage. We know that the livelihood of many talented, passionate and hard working music people, artists and small and bigger labels is at stake and depend on our actions and those of Sony DADC." PIAS have also set up a fund to help labels that enter financial difficulties thanks to the destruction of their stock. More information on that here
On the Beggars Group website – one of the groups of labels affected, which includes 4AD, XL and Rough Trade – they stated that they’ve lost around 750,000 units. "Fortunately nobody was hurt," they continued. "Records can be remade where lives can’t."
They also confirmed they were working on a contingency plan. Because they have stock in warehouses across the globe, they explained, they should be able to get CDs of their current catalogue to shops in the next few weeks, though it could take three months to replenish vinyl stock.
Alongside a statement from the Association of Independent Music (AIM), Beggars encouraged people to buy music from the affected labels if possible. "This will help ease the inevitable financial burden this incident has placed on the community we are so proud of being a part of. We also ask you to support your local record store as they too will feel a knock on from this."
This afternoon, Warp Records have also stated on their website that their entire back catalogue has been destroyed.
Forthcoming albums by Rustie, Plaid and CANT have not yet been manufactured, so are not affected. However, they continued, "The biggest challenge for us is replacing Warp’s extensive back catalogue spanning the last 21 years. We will replace as much of this as we can by creating new stock and replenishing where possible with stock from outside the UK. Unfortunately some releases may never be available physically again."
On Tuesday, we published a list of 20 recommended albums from affected labels. If you can spare the money, or can make it to your local independent record shop, we too would urge you support the labels and buy one or more of them. The extent of the damage caused by the fire is only just starting to become clear.
