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Speaker Maker ScanSpeak Back in Danish Hands

Speaker Maker ScanSpeak Back in Danish Hands

If you own a high-end loudspeaker, there’s a good chance that some of the drivers were made by the Danish firm ScanSpeak. The company was known for years as building the creme de la creme of drivers, which found their way into the world’s most presitgious loudspeaker brands. The drivers were meticulously crafted in Denmark to the highest standards. 

A few years ago, however, ScanSpeak was bought by Tymphany, a consortium put together to build speaker drivers on a global scale. Manufacturing in Denmark was cut back drastically, with most of the manufacturing moved to China. The Danish factory built only a very few exotic drivers.

Those involved in ScanSpeak just bought the company back from Tymphany and are returning driver manufacturing to Denmark. They have several new high-end drivers in the works that we’ll soon see in high-end loudspeakers.

Here’s the press release announcing the buy-back.

Scan-Speak Back in Danish Hands

The speaker manufacturer Scan-Speak which is based in Videbæk, Denmark, is now a Danish-owned company again. A group of investors and financial partners has invested an eight figure sum in the company, significantly increasing the capital employed. The company plans to increase its turnover significantly over the next two years by promoting growth in all markets.

Scan-Speak, which supplies components to a wide range of the world’s leading brands in high-end speaker systems, is now in Danish hands again. This became reality after a group of investors led by director Jan Nielsen and backed by a large number of local financial partners bought the company off the previous owner Tymphany. The purchase added an eight figure sum to the capital employed.

”Scan-Speak is one of the strongest brands as far as speaker units are concerned, and the company has huge growth opportunities. The fact that Scan-Speak has managed to find investors and financial partners at a time of financial crisis and turmoil on the world markets is a clear indication of confidence and demonstrates that the company has strong potential growth opportunities in the future,” says Jan Nielsen who has been Managing Director at Scan-Speak since 2007.

The Board of Directors at Scan-Speak A/S now comprises of Jan Nielsen, Niels Jespersen (chairman of the board) and Jack Grigg. Niels Jespersen and Jack Grigg both have more than 30 years experience in the global audio industry therefore bring vast experience to the company. Turnover set to increase significantly.

The financial crisis has meant that the industry has suffered a downturn, but this has been less pronounced in the high-end market which is where Scan-Speak operates. The new management therefore sees significant growth potential in its markets – both domestic and export markets which account for almost 90 per cent of existing turnover.

”The economic downturn has of course impacted on turnover, but we will remain our present strategy. For the rest of 2009 we will work on stabilising the business and retaining our existing customers, and we expect in 2009 to have a positive operating profit. In 2010 we will focus on growth both with regard to existing and new customers,” says Jan Nielsen.

”Overall we will concentrate on refining and developing the unique technologies that are synonymous with Scan-Speak. In short, we will concentrate on our core expertise.”

Scan-Speak has been owned by various foreign groups over the years. According to Jan Nielsen, it was important for investors and financial partners for the company to be back in Danish hands.

”Denmark is a world leader when it comes to audio and acoustics. An important feature of the brand is that individual products are based on Danish product development, know-how and technology. The fact that the company is Danish-owned and that all production is done by hand adds marketing value which is very difficult to measure in monetary terms,” explains Jan Nielsen. He elaborates: ”We only use the best materials, and we will continue making all components by hand. This offers several benefits. For example, it means that we can handle small order sizes with a high degree of flexibility and that we can deal with orders quickly. We find more and more that this is what customers want.” Scan-Speak A/S anticipates that the projected growth in the coming years will form the basis for an expanding work force.

Key Facts:

• A group of Danish investors backed by local financial partners has bought Scan-Speak

from the previous owner Tymphany. The company continues to operate as Scan-Speak

A/S.

• The shareholders have invested an eight figure sum in the company to increase the

capital employed.

• Scan-Speak was founded in 1970 and is based in Videbaek in the west of Denmark.

• The company plans a significant increase in turnover over the next couple of years.

• Almost 90 per cent of the products are exported worldwide.

Robert Harley

By Robert Harley

My older brother Stephen introduced me to music when I was about 12 years old. Stephen was a prodigious musical talent (he went on to get a degree in Composition) who generously shared his records and passion for music with his little brother.

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