Industry news

[stevie]

May be interesting for some.

 

https://www.proavl-asia.com/details/73643-b-c-speakers-acquires-eminence-speaker

 

 

[Phil Starr]

Well I found it interesting

[JohnDaBass]

Interesting. 

Eminence has a huge facility in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province,  where they manufacture OEM speaker cabs, combos and chassis speakers LF and HF. I'm not sure but I it maybe  some form joint venture with one of the big contract manufacturers. The article refers to only 90 members employed by Eminence which suggests that the Chinese operations are out sourced to a subsidiary joint venture.  Ampeg and Fender source cabs and combos from the Eminence Guandong facility. 

It would be interesting to learn what competitive advantage B& C gain from the acquisition?

Could they use lthe leverage of the Guangdong facility for B& C products, its economy of scale for component cost savings or do they merge their technical knowhow with the Eminence volume knowhow to build market share and presence?

[BassmanPaul]

I guess we'll all just have to wait. Time will tell the story for us.

[Phil Starr]

1 hour ago, JohnDaBass said:

Interesting. 

Eminence has a huge facility in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province,  where they manufacture OEM speaker cabs, combos and chassis speakers LF and HF. I'm not sure but I it maybe  some form joint venture with one of the big contract manufacturers. The article refers to only 90 members employed by Eminence which suggests that the Chinese operations are out sourced to a subsidiary joint venture.  Ampeg and Fender source cabs and combos from the Eminence Guandong facility. 

It would be interesting to learn what competitive advantage B& C gain from the acquisition?

Could they use lthe leverage of the Guangdong facility for B& C products, its economy of scale for component cost savings or do they merge their technical knowhow with the Eminence volume knowhow to build market share and presence?

B&C don't really make instrument speakers so this might be an acquisition adding to their range. I don't know about how Eminence are distributed in the States but maybe this would help B&C in a big market. Perhaps there are some economies of scale they hope to achieve. I wonder if @agedhorse has any inside information or other insights? 

[Chienmortbb]

I wonder whether this will provoke a wave of consolidations. I was surprised 

how small Eminence are in numbers, suggesting perhaps, that much of its production is by sub contractors. It sounds like a good deal for B&C but will it be good for us in the long run. 

 

We had only two manufacturers of drivers here in the UK, Fane and Precision Devices and PD bought Fane a decade ago. Celestine have been Chinese owned for some years.

 

Italy has a  number of brands, Faital Pro, Sica, Lavoce as well as B&C and Sica acquired Jensen some years ago. Apart from those there are Beyma and Oberon.

 

My worry is the some big companies will get control of some of these companies. It is rumoured the the Harman Group companies have been starved of R&D funds since Samsung acquired Harman. Let’s hope that consolidation does not lead to a reduction of innovation and choice.

[agedhorse]

On 16/09/2023 at 23:46, Phil Starr said:

B&C don't really make instrument speakers so this might be an acquisition adding to their range. I don't know about how Eminence are distributed in the States but maybe this would help B&C in a big market. Perhaps there are some economies of scale they hope to achieve. I wonder if @agedhorse has any inside information or other insights? 

This was not unexpected, manufacturing in the US or Europe is difficult without governmental support. Different countries in the EU support different industries which is why we see a concentration of speaker manufacturers in Italy, Class D amp manufacturers in the Netherlands, etc. This is how individual countries achieve critical mass which indirectly benefits them through increased employment and tax base. China has been doing  this for years...

[Phil Starr]

On 18/09/2023 at 20:01, agedhorse said:

This was not unexpected, manufacturing in the US or Europe is difficult without governmental support. Different countries in the EU support different industries which is why we see a concentration of speaker manufacturers in Italy, Class D amp manufacturers in the Netherlands, etc. This is how individual countries achieve critical mass which indirectly benefits them through increased employment and tax base. China has been doing  this for years...

Does that mean you expect Eminence manufacturing to move overseas, maybe to Italy or South Asia?

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

The seemingly small number of Eminence employees is because they source most of their components from Asia, so the Kentucky facility is mainly used for R&D, assembly and marketing. They opened Eminence Dongguan as it didn't make sense to have components shipped to the US for assembly and then shipped back to Asia. I don't see much changing with the new ownership, which was precipitated by the retirement of CEO Bob Gault. What's most likely for now is business as usual, with B&C being the parent of B&C, 18 Sound and Eminence, much like Harmon is the parent of JBL et al.

[agedhorse]

On 19/09/2023 at 23:39, Phil Starr said:

Does that mean you expect Eminence manufacturing to move overseas, maybe to Italy or South Asia?

I don't know.

[Phil Starr]

On 20/09/2023 at 13:14, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

The seemingly small number of Eminence employees is because they source most of their components from Asia, so the Kentucky facility is mainly used for R&D, assembly and marketing. They opened Eminence Dongguan as it didn't make sense to have components shipped to the US for assembly and then shipped back to Asia. I don't see much changing with the new ownership, which was precipitated by the retirement of CEO Bob Gault. What's most likely for now is business as usual, with B&C being the parent of B&C, 18 Sound and Eminence, much like Harmon is the parent of JBL et al.

That's probably right Bill, that way the companies can be used as collateral in further deals. It's how the UK  managed to lose most of our manufacturing companies and control of our own economy. How we lost control of ARM for example.

 

It's so sad that it's taking place in the US as well

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

It's nothing new here. Dodge, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac,Chrysler, Plymouth, Chevrolet, Cadillac, all were originally stand alone companies before being consolidated under the General Motors and Chrysler Motors companies in the early 20th Century.

[Chienmortbb]

Sadly also how the French State Energy Co EDF and the German EON own much of our power generation and domestic supply. It's not hard to see why Globalisation gets a bad name, but then Protectionism hurts everyone.