Exclusive: Why Audiologic has been acquired by EAV Group

Today’s announcement that Audiologic has been bought by the German-headquartered EAV Group is big news in the field of value-added distribution.

Private-equity backed EAV has acquired 100% of the UK-based audio distributor from founders Simon Stoll and Matt Boland.

But while Audiologic is well known in the UK, it may be that the EAV Group is not quite as familiar here so far.

So what kind of company is the EAV Group and what lies behind its acquisition of Audiologic?

Formed in 2019, and originally known as the European AV Group before a rebranding as EAV Group, it came into being when Swiss-based private equity firm Ufenau Capital Partners acquired three European distributors: Audio Pro in Germany, Dr W.A. Günther in Switzerland, and Audio XL which operates in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Group CEO Sam Brandon joined in 2020, having previously run Harman’s audio division in EMEA and also led a distributor in the Middle East. There have since been further acquisitions in Switzerland, plus the acquisition of Pro Systems in the Netherlands.

“We are a network of professionals in the AV space. The aim is to provide a highly trusted, highly technically capable, consultative-style approach across the region, and our aim is to develop across the whole of Europe,” says Brandon.

Expansion will come through organic growth and through acquisition, and the aim is to invest in and develop companies.

“The predominant focus is to have a really strong footprint of project-focused companies, such as Audiologic, that offer real value and service to the customer,” Brandon says.

The companies acquired by the EAV Group so far are largely similar to Audiologic, in that all are distributors except for Pro Systems, and they cover install and live entertainment. But they also cover the MI market too.

And they have all been in the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and Benelux regions to begin with. So why buy now in the UK, rather than in other major European economies such as France or Italy or in Scandinavia?

“The approach of the group is to acquire in those other territories as well,” says Brandon. “The razor focus on the UK market was because of its breadth, its scale, and the fact that with the advancements in technology and our industry moving so fast, it’s a great market to be part of where the consultant base is very strong.”

The EAV Group had been searching for a company to acquire in the UK, looking for technical competence in a consultative sales environment. “And Audiologic came out as number one,” Brandon says.

He mentions the competence of the company’s technical team, the support it offers the company’s customer base, the progressive way its expertise is shared through online training events and video content, its top-tier brands, together with its solution-driven approach to selling with integrity.

Audiologic is now 18 years old, having been founded by Simon Stoll and Matt Boland in 2004. From its inception, the aim was to have a technical distribution model and the company won its first exclusive brand, ARX, very quickly. Wrapped around that were many wholesale brands.

“We’re a mixed model distributor,” says Andy Lewis who joined Audiologic in 2013 in a sales role before being appointed managing director in 2019. “We’re not just exclusive. We’re not just wholesale. We do both and for many good reasons.”

Having this mixed model enables integrity in recommending the right solution for a project. “It allows us to follow through on that promise of putting the right thing in the right place,” says Lewis.

While the company was already representing many brands, a real breakthrough came in the form of hero brands such as Shure and QSC. “When the QSC partnership happened in 2018 that put us on the map like nothing else has,” says Lewis.

From there, the company has grown – it has gone from a staff of half a dozen nearly ten years ago to 32. And it has a technical team that is the same size as its sales team. “It’s unheard of in distribution in the UK, certainly in audio. To say it is uncommon would be doing it a disservice,” says Lewis.

With the EAV Group promising to invest in and develop the company its acquires, what can we expect to see from Audiologic in future?

“Our industry is moving heavily towards the world of deploying AV solutions in the space of IT infrastructure. As that technology evolves and becomes more integral to the way people work from home and from the office, there’s a significant amount of evolution that Audiologic will 100% be a part of,” Brandon says.

There could be some technology types that complement current brands, but there would be a conservative, step-by-step approach to this.

“Importantly, it’s about organic growth with what there is there now,” says Brandon. This could mean even better training or deeper product demonstrations.

Certain avenues for growth have already been foreshadowed, with additional strength in the live market that was announced at ISE two years ago, and the company having successfully invested in serving Ireland and Scotland as markets.

“The key for us is that we believe in what Andy and the team have been doing. In the past years, they have been very successful and grown quite a lot,” says Brandon. “Our commitment is to stand behind the team, to continue to move the company in the direction that it needs to go in to be the best partner for customers and suppliers, where there’s real loyalty. We just want to build and develop with them.”