Lenbrook Group adds NAD to Roster

Toronto-based Lenbrook Group announced earlier this month that it had acquired NAD Electronics from AudioNord International, a Scandinavian organization that has owned the brand for most of this decade. The deal is expected to close next week, on May 3. Lenbrook will take over NAD's worldwide marketing and distributorship, but AudioNord will continue to market the brand in Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and Scandinavia. Other joint marketing ventures will follow, according to Lenbrook's public relations agent.

"The close cooperation between Lenbrook and AudioNord International will result in a worldwide organization that combines the talents of both companies," said the Lenbrook Group's executive vice president, Gordon Simmonds. "Lenbrook sees great opportunities in the further development of the NAD brand. NAD has natural synergies with a number of Lenbrook's other activities, such as the PSB loudspeaker brand, which it owns and markets throughout the world." Simmonds also emphasized that in an age of home theater, where "technical complexity and lack of attention to sound quality abound," NAD will focus on "performance, value, and simplicity."

The deal with AudioNord occasioned the promotion of former NAD USA president Bob Brown to Managing Director. Brown will be joined by Helge Kristensen, recent head of NAD product development at AudioNord, who will become the new company's director of product development. KEF Audio's former worldwide sales director, Neil Wilson, has been named NAD's director of international sales and marketing.

"Having Lenbrook drive the NAD product strategy from a North American base will ensure the latest technologies and trends will be appropriately adapted to the product line," said AudioNord International president Ivan Sorensen. "We will use our local presence to grow even further the development of the NAD brand in the regions of Europe we serve."

The 27-year-old NAD brand is well known among North American audiophiles for its high-value products, and is distributed in over 50 countries. Later this year, home-theater equipment will be added to the NAD Silver Series, a high-performance line of music components. Lenbrook has been NAD's exclusive Canadian distributor since 1978, in addition to marketing NAD Electronics products in the US and throughout Central and South America. Lenbrook also represents Bang & Olufsen, Marantz, and KEF in Canada.

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