The financially beleaguered Alpha Omega Jewelry chain reopened two of its four upscale stores under new management yesterday afternoon after the company's founder, Raman Handa, disappeared last week and the shops closed for business five days before Christmas.
After making an inventory of all items in the glitzy stores in Harvard Square and the Prudential Building in the morning, teams of smiling managers and business consultants opened the doors of both shops at 2 p.m. The stores in the Burlington Mall and the Natick Collection mall are expected to open about noon today, said Michael O'Hara, an investment banker who now manages Alpha Omega.
As holiday shoppers browsed - a student looking for a Swatch to give his friend; a young couple looking for an engagement ring - the company staff spent the afternoon trying to assuage the fears of customers who had made deposits or left jewelry and watches for repair, and reassure employees who had been told Friday they were fired, but were rehired yesterday.
"That's all what it's all about today: just trying to please people, make them feel secure," said Mark Robinson, a specialist hired to help restructure the business, who dashed about the company's flagship store in Harvard Square, chatting with employees and customers. "I actually don't care if we sell anything today."
But the shock of finding the store inexplicably closed for two days, and the air of uncertainty that remains about the location of the Handas, who are said to be in their native India, and the future of the chain's ownership worried some cus tomers.
"I wouldn't buy anything here," said Paul Harris of Newton, who had come to check on the status of his wife's Baume & Mercier watch he had dropped off for minor repairs three weeks ago. "People go out of business, but that's not the way to do it. You don't leave people in a lurch."
Many employees said they felt bitter about the way the Handas left and had the stores closed without any explanation.
"Maybe the owner is [under] extreme stress; I understand that. But I wish he [would] stand next to us," said Sara Kebabjian, who has sold jewelry at the store for five years. She said she felt unsure about the business and her status.
"Today we are here, we don't know about tomorrow," Kebabjian said. "We're going to see day-to-day. [What the] future brings, nobody knows."
"It's just been a lot of confusion, being very unsure about what your position is and whether you want to stay," said one employee, who asked that his name not be published because he was planning to quit. "There's so much lying going on. It's just something I don't want to get myself involved in."
Peter Livingstone, a watch collector from Concord, had come to check on the status of his order for a $460,000 A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph watch, a built-to- order item for which he had left a deposit several weeks ago, and which he is expecting to receive within a year.
After a long conversation with a salesman, Livingstone was not convinced that his deposit to Alpha Omega guarantees he will get the watch.
"I bought the most expensive item in this store," Livingstone said. "I have to wait and see on that deal."
O'Hara, who manages the company under a new agreement between the Cambridge-based company's lawyers and the bank that seized its assets, said he was unsure about the whereabouts of owners Handa and his wife, Nilma, who remain directors of the company for now. O'Hara said he was told they were in India. O'Hara also said he was talking to potential buyers for the business.
The Handas, who have been struggling with financial problems, disappeared without notifying business associates or friends. Their stores closed after representatives of the bank that controls Alpha Omega's assets, the LaSalle Business Credit arm of Bank of America Corp., took possession of the company's inventory last week.
Some customers and employees appeared happy, though, yesterday. Mikhail Panko, 23, an exchange student from Russia, was relieved to find the Cambridge store open - and the engagement ring he had ordered ready for him to pick up.
Panko is planning to propose to Maria Maslova on Christmas Eve, and had prepaid for the ring last week.
But when he arrived at the store Thursday to pick up the ring, he found the doors shut, the store website down, and the answering machine not taking messages.
"I was really scared," said Panko. "I mentally had written off the money."
Source: boston
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