Private Equity Firm Says It Will Keep Thiel Operations in Lexington, Ky.
Details were thin with the announcement that high-end speaker manufacturer Thiel Audio was purchased by a private equity firm based in Nashville. Thiel, founded in 1978, had been fully owned by Kathy Gornik, co-founder and president, since the death of co-founder and head audio designer Jim Thiel in 2009. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Gornik wasn’t available for comment.
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Gornik and her daughter, Dawn Cloyd, director of international sales, are no longer with the company, but other executives will make the transition, including National Sales Manager Brad Paulsen, Director of Manufacturing Rob Gillum, Director of Product Development Gary Dayton and Sales Coordinator Lana Ruth, a company spokesman told us.
According to a news release, Thiel’s R&D and manufacturing facility in Lexington, Ky., will continue to operate at full capacity, and there are no plans to close the Lexington operation. “The entire factory team has been retained,” and existing sales reps and dealers will remain in place, according to the statement.
Incoming Thiel CEO Bill Thomas was in the hospital Thursday and unable to answer questions. He said he would be available Monday, the spokesman said. A news release about the sale went out Wednesday after news of the sale leaked out through the sales channel, the spokesman said.
The priority for the new Thiel at the outset is to “invest in the company’s infrastructure, strengthening the engineering department,” Thomas said in a prepared statement. Thomas said the new ownership can “improve efficiencies” at Thiel in the product development and manufacturing stages, “shortening the time to delivery for new products with zero compromise in product quality."
Maintaining Thiel’s brand quality and reputation are major concerns of AV dealer Armond Woods, manager of Alpha Stereo in Plattsburgh, N.Y., who wasn’t aware of the ownership change when we spoke to him Thursday. Woods just took on Thiel in the past few months to appeal to high-end customers from Montreal and the Lake Placid area, Woods said. He took on the line as an “experiment” at the suggestion of luxury-brand customers who touted the brand, he said. Woods sold one pair in the middle of Thiel’s price range, which runs from $1,090 for single speakers to $14,700 per stereo pair. On a revered audio brand being purchased by a private investment company, Woods said, an infusion of cash for undercapitalized companies is “great unless you get in bean counters who want to increase margins and end up compromising quality to the point that you get crap,” he said. “I hope that doesn’t happen here to a fine American brand like Thiel."
In the release, Thomas said the new Thiel will explore new product categories. Currently the company sells floor-standing speakers, the category that launched the brand, and also markets powered subwoofers, bookshelf speakers and architectural in-wall, in-ceiling and on-wall speakers for the custom market. An expansion of the architectural series is an “immediate priority,” Woods said, to “further establish the brand as a leading supplier of premium distributed audio solutions.” The company plans to invest “considerable time and energy” getting feedback from its worldwide distribution channels, “gathering data about the marketplace from those who know it best” before making decisions about future product direction, Thomas said. Resources will also be allocated to “improving the company’s website and other marketing initiatives,” he said.