Is Convoy Set To Lose NAD & Harman Brands?
Struggling distributor Convoy International is facing a potential loss of brands if comments made at CES 2020 are anything to go by.
The latest speculation is that Connected Media who were given the Bluesound professional product range last year is set to take NAD.
Major shareholder in Connected Media Ken Dwyer is extremly close to Lenbrook President & CEO Gordon Simmonds from his days running Audio Products Australia.
Several people at CES especially in the private rooms at The Venetian where organizations such as Canadian Company Lenbrook and Sound United set up camp questioned me about where is Convoy going following the death last year of founder Geoff Mathews, of concern was the lack of a national sales manager for the past 18 months.
It was only in December that brand partners of Convoy were told that Martin Ireland had been appointed following his exit from Bowers & Wilkins following the appointment of former BusiSoft General Manager Michael Di Meglio at Bowers & Wilkins.
According to dealers and analysts at CES the Bluesound brand is struggling in the consumer market as brands such as Harman Kardon and Bowers & Wilkins as well as brands such as Bose take sales away from Bluesound.
Also set to hurt Convoy and Lenbrook globally is Sound United who have integrated their HEOS network operating system into new Denon, Marantz and Definitive Technology products.
Ireland who previously worked at Sennheiser is set to have his work cut out working for Convoy with several competitors pitching Harman to also take JBL Pro audio products as well as Mark Levinson, and Revel Audio products out of Convoy.