By Lam Seng Fatt
Monitor Audio, the British manufacturer of speakers, has bought another British audio company – the well-respected Roksan.
On Nov 29, Monitor Audio had posted on its Facebook page:
Important Announcement:
Monitor Audio are delighted to announce the acquisition of ROKSAN AUDIO, a well-respected manufacturer of amplifiers, loudspeakers and streaming source products.
Like Monitor Audio, Roksan is a British company committed to superior audio performance with a reputation for design excellence, premium quality and exceptional value. We share an incredible synergy between our two product ranges and our business cultures.
We are excited about the possibilities this acquisition offers.
The next day, What Hi-Fi? reported Monitor Audio managing director Andrew Flatt as saying: “Roksan had been up for sale for a couple of years, and I indicated two years ago what I was willing to pay for it. The owner approached me four weeks ago and we agreed a deal. It’s a retirement sale [co-founder Tufan Hashemi has left the business].
“As Monitor Audio already operates in 100 countries, we believe we could triple Roksan’s sales pretty quickly. The company needs modernising and bringing into the twentieth century, so my management team has gone in to sort it out.”
What HI-Fi? reported that Roksan’s current 17 staff have now joined Monitor Audio and Roksan will continue to trade under its own brand name. Flatt says he is looking to make further acquisitions having “turned down some other struggling electronics companies in the last six weeks”.
Roksan was founded in 1985 by Tufan Hashemi and Touraj Moghaddam. It was acquired in 1996 by Verity PLC, which at the time owned the Mission, Quad and Wharfedale brands, What Hi-Fi? reported.
When Verity demerged two years later to focus on making flat-panel speakers, Hashemi and Moghaddam bought Roksan back. Touraj Moghaddam resigned his directorship of Roksan in 2011 and founded Vertere Acoustics, which specialises in turntables and cables.
Touraj has visited Malaysia a few times to attend the Kuala Lumpur International AV Show. Those who had visited the Vertere room would have met the friendly and knowledgeable Touraj.
I met Tufan in November 2012 when he was in Kuala Lumpur for a short visit (To read the interview, please click http://av2day.com/2012/11/roksans-tufan-maintains-he-is-right-and-others-are-wrong/).
He told me then that he had actually retired in 2000. “Actually I retired before about 12 years ago. I did some travelling for six months and then I got bored. I had some ideas and wanted to get them to fruition. I came back and designed the Caspian,” he said.
I recall Tufan telling me what he would like to do when he actually did retire.
“You know what I would like to do? I want to open a hi-fi shop by the sea in the South of France, Monaco, Cannes or Marbella and set up the best hi-fi systems for demo. Then I’ll have coffee or wine and play around with the systems.”
I cannot confirm if he has actually opened a hi-fi shop in that part of Europe.
