COMMENT: Is Armour Home Under Threat As War Breaks Out Over Q Acoustics Distribution

Serious questions are being asked about the future of Armour Home the manufacturer of several Hi Fi and Connected Home brands due to COVID-19 and claims that the Company is under pressure financially.

In Australia, the Company has a chequered history with several distributors including their current distributor, walking away from selling Armour Homes brands such as Q Acoustics and QED.

It was only recently that Armour Home was asking Indi Imports to take on other Armour Home brands such as Goldring in Australia.

Earlier today we revealed that Indi Imports who took on the QED and Q Acoustic brands in 2017 after a parting of the way with Westan a Melbourne based distributor who lost the brand despite delivering 20% growth had also quit selling Armour Home brands

Sources have told Channel News that the UK based Company is struggling financially, and that supply is a problem and that the Company has moved to slash costs in key departments such as marketing.

In Australia, the Company parted Company with Ruth Jones after 13 years.

The former Country Manager and International Sales Manager for Armour Home Jones who is now under NDA has told industry executives that she struggled to get paid when she parted Company with the UK operation according to sources.

Jones is now working as the dealer manager for Connected Media Australia.

ChannelNews understands that several retailers are concerned that “yet another” distributor Melbourne based Busisoft has been appointed to sell Q Acoustics products in Australia.

In the UK which is Armour Homes biggest market Hi Fi brick and mortar stores closed their doors in line with government guidelines over the Coronavirus crisis.

This forced many of their retailers to expand their online sales operation.

The only problem was that consumers wanting to buy premium Hi Fi still wanted to hear the quality of the product they were considering.

This has impacted brands such as Q Acoustics.

Another compounding problem for Armour Home was supply and the closedown of manufacturing plants.

According to Indi Import executives Armour Home supply of goods had become “a major problem” resulting in the distributor taking on another brand which is currently held by another Hi Fi distributor in Australia.

Hi Fi retailers being shown the new brand that will replace the Q Acoustics brand are under strict None Disclosure Agreements not to reveal the brand or information about the move to Indi Imports.

Armour Home claim they are a manufacturer of multi-award-winning audio equipment.

The Company has six Company owned brands and one brand of which they are the exclusive UK distributor.

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David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.