Plants of independent, third-generation family-owned Vinyl/CD/DVD replicator Pallas, located at Diepholz (Lower Saxony), was destroyed by fire on Sunday night.

"What was supposed to be a leisurely Easter ended with a disaster," writes Holger Newman, MD of Pallas Group Worldwide, in a note to customers. "A major fire burned the entire production plant of the P+O Compact Disc with the production for audio and data CD, CD-ROM and DVD. The cause of the fire is not yet known, the damage adds up to an eight-figure sum."

Newmann points out that the vinyl production has not been affected by the fire. "The production of LPs and special records continues without restrictions, with customer orders being fulfilled normally." Work has been rapidly underway to restore production of the full range of services.

Palas was founded in 1948 as a producer of vinyl recordings. It became a group with the opening in 1976 of subsidiary Orchestrola, that manufactured music cassettes (it closed in July 2010). P+O Compact Disc was set up in 1986 to press CDs, then DVDs in 2000. Lastly, DA Music was created to oversee sales of records within the Pallas Group.

Today, the Pallas Group has a workforce of 143 and is one of the last surviving vinyl record pressing plants in Europe.

Story filed 04.04.13