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French Hi Fi Group Appoints NZ Distie Despite No Local OZ Reps

French Hi Fi Group Appoints NZ Distie Despite No Local OZ Reps

The NZ Company NA Distribution, has told dealers that they intend to service the Australian market out of New Zealand with executives making the occasional flying visit. 

They have also told dealers that they will in the future set up a warehouse “somewhere in Australia”. 

NA Distribution who are the Naim distributor for both Australia and New Zealand, were not answering calls at 3.15pm yesterday because their New Zealand office had already shut up shop for the day. 

New Zealand is two hours ahead of Australia.

Len Wallis a director of Audio Marketing the former distributor of Focal products said “We were aware some time ago that Focal were looking to merge their operations in various markets around the world. However it is odd that they have appointed an organisation that has no representation in Australia”. 

A leading Hi Fi dealer said “Focal will go nowhere if they think that all their distributor has to do is hop on a plane from New Zealand to sell their products. Australia is a bigger market than New Zealand both geographically and from a market prospective. The least that NA Distribution could do if they are serious about the brand in Australia is put their hands in their pocket and pay for a sales and service operation in this Country”.

Recently JBL who sell the top end JBL Synthesis sound systems moved to expand their sales and service operations in Australia. 

A direct competitor to Focal JBL which is distributed by Convoy moved to support dealers by offering a service whereby JBL staff visit a home to scope the installation prior to the arrival of their high end sound gear. 

The room diagnostics are then sent to the US where a JBL sound experts configures the best set up for the system based on the size and configuration of the room.

According to Gary Tye the JBL Product Manager at Convoy the distributor of the JBL Synthesis sound systems the premium service is a “critical” part of the sell in process as it allows users to get the maximum output from their sound investment. 

N.A. Distributors have told various Hi Fi media Companies that the move to merge Focal and Naim under one New Zealand based distributor is “a strategy that makes sound business sense”.

What they have not explained to Soundmag or ChannelNews is how it makes sense when no one can get hold of representatives in New Zealand after 3.00pm of an afternoon or how they intent to support dealers with sales when they have no representatives in Country. 

Chris Murphy a director at N. A. Distributor was quoted earlier today claiming that the move was based on their “strong business performance” with the Naim brand in Australia.