Ariston a Company that is 60% owned by Harvey Norman in Australia, is set to distribute the Monster brand along with the Solo 3DR drone.
Sources at Harvey Norman have confirmed the move.
Geoff Mathews the CEO of Convoy who currently distributes both Monster products and the Solo 3DR Drone has also confirmed that both brands will go to Ariston who market themselves as a distributor of Ariston appliances spanning ovens, laundry and cooktops.
It’s not known what impact this will have on sales of the 3DR drone or Monster electrical products which are sold by several competing retailers.
Currently the Solo 3DR is being sold by specialist dealers in Australia, it was also set to be sold via other mass retailers stores.
Meanwhile he Monster brand has seen sales slump in Australia, last year JB Hi Fi dropped the Monster headphone brand while sales of the Companies electrical and cable products are believed to have halved during the past 18 months.
When asked whether Harvey Norman were expanding into their distribution business via Ariston Mathews said “Ariston are taking Monster and 3DR and yes they are predominantly owned by Harvey Norman. The documentation is just drying now.
When asked Is this Gerry Harvey moving into mass distribution, Mathews said “It could be, I know that Ariston is by majority owned by Harvey Norman”.
Also going to Ariston is Adam Mills the former product manager for Solo 3DR.
According to Mathews, the deal was finalised last week with paperwork drawn up today.
An Ariston employee told ChannelNews that the Company was “predominantly owned by Harvey Norman”.Last week ChannelNews broke the story that Convoy was getting out of the Consumer market to concentrate on the specialist Hi Fi market.
Simon Taylor the Managing Director of Ariston; was not available to comment.
The Ariston web site claims that their products are designed and built by one of Europe’s largest home appliances company and that Ariston is Italy’s number 1 brand.
What’s not known is whether the Monster products and the Solo 3DR Drone will be exclusively sold by Harvey Norman stores.
Currently the Ariston appliance products are only sold by Harvey Norman.
