Prism Sound Orpheus - Audio Media

05|08AMSRBOUGHT INTO A BIGGER PICTURED&M HOLDINGS INC., BUYS ALLEN & HEATHSTEPHEN BENNETT talks to Glenn Rogers about the Allen & Heath buyout, and what it will mean for the future of the company.D&M Holdings Inc., the company behindsuch well-respected brands as CalrecAudio and Marantz, has announced detailsof its acquisition of UK-based mixing consolemanufacturer Allen and Heath Holdings Limited.Concluding such a transaction on 1st April is alwaysa risky business as there’s always the danger that itmay be perceived as a practical joke, “We waiteduntil the afternoon so that no-one jumped the gunand thought it was an April Fool,” says Glenn Rogers,Managing Director of the Cornwall-based company.“We’ve grown our core pro-audio business viaventure capital over the last seven years and wewere happily swimming along and not anticipatingany changes when D&M approached us with theidea of working together. “Allen and Heath has an enviable reputationwhich hails back to the late 1960s. Since then thecompany has been through several changes ofownership, including their acquisition by Harmanin the 1990s and a subsequent managementbuy-out in 2001. “We listened to D&M because wefelt there was a certain synergy between whatboth companies wanted to achieve and we couldenvisage a scenario where we’d see more of abenefit in the long term with D&M than we wouldas an independent,” says Rogers. “We were gettingto the point where there were so many things wewanted to do and areas into which we wanted toexpand – which we’ve done to some extent withthe ZED range and our move back into retail – butAllen & Heath Managing Director Glenn Rogers.we were limited bybeing a small independentcompany.Now we are in aposition where wewill be encouragedto move into thoseareas and we’ll alsobenefit from greaterinvestment – whichis a big change fromwhen you are a smallc o m p a n y w h e r eeverything has tobe funded with themoney from sales.”Initially, Allen and Heath’s customers won’t seeany change from the results of the acquisitionand, although D&M hold all the shares, the companywill remain based in Cornwall. “Everyone isstill here and it’s business as usual,” says Rogers.“You can never say that there won’t be changes,but we’d expect any to be to the benefit to thecustomer. It would be pointless for D&M to buythe company and then change our focus – whichhas always been directed at the end user and ourability to give them the best quality products wecan. D&M’s aim is for the company to continue togrow as it has done over the last few years – andwe want to make sure we can deliver on that.Their interest in us is that we are good at what wedo and they want us to goon doing more of it!”Allen and Heath shouldbenefit from the economiesof scale that come withbeing part of D&M holdings,whose portfolio includesCalrec Audio, Denon DJ,Marantz, Snell Acoustics,and Boston Acoustics, aswell as highly-respected hi-fimanufacturer, McIntosh.“D&M are a global organisationand are very shrewdabout the ‘value added’aspect of a product,” saysR o g e r s. “ Fo r e x a m p l e,McIntosh is manufacturedin the US and that’s perceivedto be appropriatefor that product’s userbase – they realise that theimportant thing is what thebrand means to a customer.”R o g e r s b e l i e v e s t h a tbecause D&M knows howto look after its range ofhighly-respected qualitySome of the newly extended family.brands, Allen and Heath, one of the world’s mostwell-known audio manufacturers, will be safein D&M’s hands. “They understand the value ofquality and the need to give the customer theright package – which to us, after building upthe brand and making it special, was key in ourdecision to accept D&M’s offer.” Rogers says thatthe acquisition came to fruition over a period ofonly a few months which seems to indicate thatthe whole process really was as amicable andmutually agreeable as it appears.“We now have access to technology in thegroup which, as an independent, was slightlymore difficult to obtain – the main reasonbeing that we had to pay for it!” laughs Rogers.“Obviously, with Calrec, D&M have a lot of broadcastexperience and technology – such as theirredundancy processes and the way audio coresare managed – so there’s a lot of interesting stufffor us to look at. There’s also the question of standardsand interfaces which is always more difficultfor two separate companies to address –but we now have a better chance of covering allthe bases.” Rogers believes that technology fromboth Denon DJ and Marantz could also be importantfor Allen and Heath’s future development.“We should be able to to further advance our DJrange and use the iDR series as a basis for thedevelopment of products for the distributionof audio and other media in the home,” he says.In some respects, Rogers sounds like a kid witha new toy – but he’s aware of the potential pitfallsthat may accompany all these possibilities.“There’s a lot of crossover between the companiesat D&M – which is very exciting when you look atit. It’s just whether we are going to have the timeto play with all these nice ideas without it gettingin the way of the things we do best!” ∫....................................INFORMATIONwww.dm-holdings.comwww.allen-heath.com70AUDIO MEDIA MAY 2008