Girard, Ohio — Speaker maker SVS, which started as a direct seller of subwoofers to consumers, has built up its U.S. dealer base to account for almost 20 percent of its U.S. volume, the company said.
With the addition of Texas-based Starpower’s online store and four brick-and-mortar stores, SVS now has 30 dealers with retail storefront selling its products, a spokesperson said.
In 2012, SVS signed up its first U.S. retailer, Huppin’s in Spokane, Wash., for online and brick-and-mortar sales. Before that, SVS did a small amount of volume through custom integrators who “were more system-installation-focused, not retail,” the spokesman said.
“When the new ownership, led by Gary Yacoubian, took over SVS about three years ago, the split was 95 percent online direct to 5 percent retail,” the spokesman continued. “After normalizing margins and creating a formal dealer program, now the percentage is closer to 80-20 in the U.S. and 50-50 when you take into account international sales, which are almost entirely done through retail.”
About half of SVS’s revenues come from outside the U.S., he added.
SVS’s hybrid sales strategy includes a unilateral resale pricing policy.
At International CES, SVS launched its PB-2000 and SB-2000 subwoofers at $699 and $799, respectively, helping the company set all-time monthly sales records in January and February, the company said. SVS also offers full-range speakers.
Starpower sells and installs audio, video, security and home-automation products.
