Sound United, the parent company to Denon, Polk Audio, Marantz, Definitive Technology, Classé, and Boston Acoustics, has acquired UK audio brand Bowers & Wilkins, the big question now is what will happen to distribution in Australia.
Currently Bowers and Wilkins in operated as a subsidiary office of the UK Company while Sound United use distributors such as Qualifi and Westan to distribute their brands in Australia.
Sound United finalised the acquisition of Bowers & Wilkins after issuing as press release that they were in discussions back in June 2020.
Since then there has been much speculation and a big dose of silence from both audio Companies who are seen as market leaders in the Australian and global audio markets.
Sound United said in a press statement issued to ChannelNews that by investing in additional brands it will enable them to better innovate across product categories, feature sets, technology partners, and consumer segments. As part of the acquisition, Sound United will support the development of new Bowers & Wilkins products to support the brand’s position in the premium acoustic home audio market.
“Acquiring Bowers & Wilkins combines its industry-leading acoustic design, engineering and manufacturing expertise in the premium category with Sound United’s scale, technical acumen and consumer reach to ensure Bowers & Wilkins thrives moving forward,” said Kevin Duffy, CEO at Sound United.
“Sound United has a strong track record of enthusiastically protecting each of its brands’ unique identities and core competencies, and our approach with Bowers & Wilkins will be no different. In fact, we believe the entire portfolio stands to benefit from the addition of Bowers & Wilkins, which in turn translates into exciting new products, technologies and opportunities for our consumers, distributors, dealers, and all audio enthusiasts around the world.”
Geoff Edwards will ensure continuity by becoming President of the Bowers & Wilkins brand at Sound United. The acquisition includes all worldwide third-party distribution and licensing agreements under which Bowers & Wilkins premium audio products are currently sold.
“This acquisition represents a new era for Bowers & Wilkins and offers a fresh opportunity to focus on what we do best: building the industry’s finest loudspeakers,” said Geoff Edwards, CEO of Bowers & Wilkins. “We’re looking forward to combining our organisations and becoming a part of the industry’s strongest portfolio of premium audio brands.”
The local subsidiary of Bowers and Wilkins is run by Phil Newton the former Vice President of Samsung, under his watch and after B&W dumped Convoy International as their distributor Newton and his team have increased sales “dramatically” with the business up over 70% during COVID-19.