Directed said it has sold the Orion car audio brand to MD Audio Engineering, the U.S. arm of a Latin America supplier that officially makes its market debut in the U.S. with Orion.
The Orion brand and product rights were sold for an undisclosed sum.
As of February 10, MD Audio, based in Miami, handles all Orion orders and warranties. MD Audio is an arm of Mobile Sound out of Venezuela, which sells Lanzar Pro car audio amplifiers and speakers in the Latin and Central American markets as well as the Caribbean. It has been in the car audio business for about 25 years .
For its part, Directed divested Orion in order to focus its energy on “car security and control” products and window film, said VP marketing Jim Jardin.
Directed’s parent company, DEI Holdings, continues to own Polk Audio.
“SmartStart and connectivity of your phone is just taking off. We lead that category and we want to continue to lead….we have plans to aggressively grow it and we just want to focus on our core again,” said Jardin.
MD Audio’s financial officer Willy Lopez said the company plans to improve the product quality of Orion and take the brand global. “Our intent is to restore Orion to the position it held in its glory days in the late 80’s and early 90’s, when it was the premier high power, dollar for power product you could buy.”
The company plans to improve componentry and “step it up to more power for the dollar,” Lopez said.
MD Audio acquired all global rights to Orion, as well as proprietary designs, existing inventory, show cars, marketing materials and web domains.
The company plans to keep the Lanzar Pro and Orion brands separate, with Lanzar Pro aimed at the Latin and Central American markets and the Caribbean while Orion is initially aimed at the U.S.
MD Audio Engineering may be reached at [email protected].
Source: CEoutlook
