The Morning Brief · 30 October 2026
Humac
On 23 October 2026 the folding iPhone Duo went on sale in Denmark. In a Humac shop that day, staff showing it to a reporter said every size but the smallest had already sold out. Ten weeks earlier the same chain had locked every door it had. How does a shop go from closed to sold out in ten weeks?
Denmark’s Apple shop.
Humac has sold Apple products in Denmark since 1989, and sells nothing else. It sells the same iPhones and Macs you can buy almost anywhere, and tries to earn its keep on advice, set-up and repairs. Denmark has no Apple Store of its own, so for many Danes Humac has been the nearest thing.
A better shop for the same phone.
Humac’s promise was simple. Buy your Apple product from people who know it, and get help when it breaks. When the chain reopened in September, the returning owner made promises of his own.
- Denmark’s largest Apple Premium ResellerHow Humac long described itselfNow 8 shops, from 22
- Open
Denmark’s best customer experience when it comes to Apple
Humac, on reopening, 16 Sep 2026 (my translation) - First accounts will tell
The shops we have chosen to keep have always made money, and they will going forward
Jacob Andersen, owner, to DetailWatch, Sep 2026 (my translation)
One minute read. Four to go.
The Power Test · Question 2 of 35
Could a customer buy everything you sell, at the same price, from your own supplier?
This question is about your company, not Humac.
Your answer stays on this screen. The advice opens free when you join the Morning Brief.
- In your company
- The sign: a rival could copy most of your sales tomorrow with the same supplier. The check: count what share of your sales only you provide. The move: bring that share, as one number, to your next leadership meeting.
- In your investments
- The sign: running costs bigger than the money left after paying the supplier, year after year. The check: set those two lines side by side in the annual report. The move: read what the owners say they will change.
- In your career
- The sign: your job’s whole value is passing on someone else’s product. The check: name the skill customers pay you for directly. The move: build that skill now; if the job is already gone, sell the skill on its own.
— Max Noble
Take the short test, 2 minutes →The full chapter is in the book →
What the room knows about Humac
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- Four years of losses, in one chart
- Why the man who sold it came back to buy it
- Three moves I would make in the owner’s chair
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Busy shops. Empty till.
The doors stayed open for years, but the money kept running the wrong way.
The company behind the shops lost money in every set of accounts from 2022 to 2025.
Added together, those four losses came to more than DKK 100 million.
The money left after paying for the products shrank too. It was about DKK 66 million in 2022 and less than half of that by 2025.
In 2025 alone it lost about DKK 27 million.
By the end of that year it owed about DKK 22 million more than everything it owned. In plain words, the shop was worth less than nothing on paper.
Its accounts for 2025, signed off in July, warned of serious doubt about whether it could carry on.
The chain shrank as it went. It had 22 shops in 2022 and 14 by this summer. Rarely has a shop sold so many things that fold, while folding so slowly itself.
Profit or loss before tax, DKK million
Humac shops in Denmark
The seller came back as the buyer.
Here is the problem in one picture. The same iPhone is sold by Apple’s own website, by the phone companies with a subscription, and by the big electronics chains. Apple decides what it looks like, what it costs and when it launches. Humac’s supplier is also one of its rivals, which makes for awkward Christmas cards.
The trade press says the same. Phone companies, big chains and Apple’s own sales have squeezed the margin out of dedicated shops like Humac, MereMobil wrote in September.
The second problem was ownership. Humac has had three owners in four years.
In 2022 a businessman from North Jutland, Jacob Andersen, took Humac over from its Russian owner for nothing. He took on its debts instead, TV 2 reported, and put in fresh money.
In December 2024 he sold it to C&C, an Italian Apple retailer from Bari.
In April 2026 C&C entered a rescue process of its own in Italy, Børsen reported. A parent in trouble cannot lend to its children.
On 13 August the Danish company went into reconstruction. That is a court-supervised pause in which creditors must wait while the owners try to fix the business. The court appointed a lawyer from Bech-Bruun to oversee it, and every shop closed.
Then the old owner made his move. Andersen agreed to buy the shops, the business customers and the website for about DKK 52 million, Børsen reported. Nearly all of that price is a bank debt he takes over; the cash part is about DKK 2 million.
He sold the whole chain. He bought back the half that pays.
Humac reopened on 16 September under his new company, Humac Denmark A/S, with Andersen as owner and chief executive.
It kept eight shops: Aarhus, Odense and six in and around Copenhagen. Aalborg, Vejle, Esbjerg, Roskilde, Hillerød and one Aarhus shop did not come back.
In October it told WeLoveApple it had received about half of Denmark’s first iPhone Duo stock. Humac has not published the numbers, so that share cannot be checked.
That is why Humac sits among the risers on the Morning Brief. Its score is unchanged, because a formal rescue keeps the old company low. But on a weak board, a smaller chain with a returning owner and a sold-out launch holds one of the stronger hands.
From closed to sold out
A smaller chain with a better hand, and no accounts yet.
The old Humac lost money in every year on record since 2022. The new Humac has dropped the shops its owner did not want and kept the ones he says have always made money. That claim is his, and only the first accounts of Humac Denmark A/S can prove it. Until then, my call is simple: the hand is stronger, the cards are still face down.
Three moves I would make in the owner’s chair.
Charge for the help.
I would make repairs, set-ups and service plans the product, with clear prices on the wall. Humac already offers same-day repairs. The next step is to earn more on them than on the boxes.
Win the companies.
I would put the business customers first. A firm buys forty Macs at once and needs them set up, fixed and replaced on a plan. That is steady money the big electronics chains rarely chase.
Keep a cushion.
I would keep cash in the bank and add shops only when the eight pay their way. Aalborg can wait for the right lease. The last chapter showed how fast a thin cushion runs out when the parent cannot help.
Own What the Supplier Cannot Price
Denmark, 1989. A Dane who wanted a Mac went to the shop that became Humac. For more than three decades the shop was where Denmark met the Mac, at one point in 22 stores. There was just one problem. Apple set the prices. Then Apple, the phone companies and the big chains sold the very same machines next door. It is a bit like running a restaurant where someone else writes the menu, sets the prices, supplies the food, and opens three restaurants across the street. By 2024 Humac had made a profit in only three of its last ten years. In 2025 it lost 27 million kroner. When the supplier sets the price, your profit lives in what it cannot sell. Own what the supplier cannot price.
— Max Noble
Humac is not a story about bad shops. It is a story about selling something everyone else sells, at a price someone else sets.
From the book in preparationThe 52 Laws of Business Power · the 2027 edition, out 31 OctoberRead every law so far →
The Power Test · Question 2 of 35
Could a customer buy everything you sell, at the same price, from your own supplier?
This question is about your company, not Humac.
- In your company
- The sign: a rival could copy most of your sales tomorrow with the same supplier. The check: count what share of your sales only you provide. The move: bring that share, as one number, to your next leadership meeting.
- In your investments
- The sign: running costs bigger than the money left after paying the supplier, year after year. The check: set those two lines side by side in the annual report. The move: read what the owners say they will change.
- In your career
- The sign: your job’s whole value is passing on someone else’s product. The check: name the skill customers pay you for directly. The move: build that skill now; if the job is already gone, sell the skill on its own.
— Max Noble
Take the short test, 2 minutes →The full chapter is in the book →
Humac’s returning owner bought back only the eight shops he says have always made money, and the first sign is that it got about half of Denmark’s iPhone Duo launch stock.
You have read Humac. Now make the owner’s call.
Compete in The Power GameEvery number traceable.
- Humac press release, 13 Aug 2026: C&C Denmark A/S in reconstruction, court, reconstructor, reason (parent group), CEO quote · humac.dk
- C&C Denmark A/S (CVR 13397597) annual accounts 2021–2025: gross profit, result before tax, equity · proff.dk
- Bruun & Hjejle: Humac continues under new ownership (stores, B2B business, humac.dk) · bruunhjejle.dk
- Børsen via M&A Insights, 31 Aug 2026: DKK 52.2m price, DKK 50m bank debt assumed, DKK 2.2m cash, owner 2022–2024 · mainsights.io
- Ritzau via TV 2 Fyn, 14 Aug 2026: 14 shops and webshop closed, 2025 loss, negative equity, sale to C&C in 2024 · tv2fyn.dk
- MigogAalborg, 14 Aug 2026: 2025 loss before tax, going-concern doubt in accounts approved 17 July, C&C in Italian reconstruction since April (Børsen) · migogaalborg.dk
- MereMobil, 16 Sep 2026: reopening, customer-experience promise, focus on service and repair, competition · meremobil.dk
- MigogAalborg, 17 Sep 2026: Andersen sole owner and CEO of Humac Denmark, shops closed, Aalborg · migogaalborg.dk
- MigogOdense, 17 Sep 2026: eight shops, six in the Copenhagen area, Andersen quote to DetailWatch · migogodense.dk
- Estatenews, 21 Sep 2026: Jacob Andersen Holding ApS takes over; the eight shops listed · estatenews.dk
- WeLoveApple, 23 Oct 2026: Humac says it got about half of the Danish iPhone Duo allocation; all sizes but 256 GB sold out · weloveapple.dk
- TV 2 Nord, 29 Apr 2022: Jacob Andersen takes over Humac’s 22 shops for nothing, takes on its debts, puts in new money · tv2nord.dk
- Computerworld via Techleap, Dec 2024: C&C of Bari buys Humac and its 15 Danish shops · finder.techleap.nl
The verdict, the three moves and the law are Max Noble’s analysis. Losses are those of C&C Denmark A/S, the company that ran Humac until the sale; Humac Denmark A/S has not yet filed accounts. The iPhone Duo share is Humac’s own figure and has not been independently verified. Not investment advice.
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Own What the Supplier Cannot Price
The same mistake, in your own world. Free, from the book.
- In your company
- The sign: a rival could copy most of your sales tomorrow with the same supplier. The check: count what share of your sales only you provide. The move: bring that share, as one number, to your next leadership meeting.
- In your investments
- The sign: running costs bigger than the money left after paying the supplier, year after year. The check: set those two lines side by side in the annual report. The move: read what the owners say they will change.
- In your career
- The sign: your job’s whole value is passing on someone else’s product. The check: name the skill customers pay you for directly. The move: build that skill now; if the job is already gone, sell the skill on its own.