18 months ago TEAC Australia was facing a bleak future, accused of price fixing and with directors of the previous distribution company. Facing ASIC charges in a Melbourne Court the companies future looked sealed. Today TEAC Australia is under new management with the Company fast becoming “the darling” of several big retailers including Harvey Norman.
Sitting fifth, in the overall LCD TV market beind Samsung, LG, Sony and Panasonic, the company is also #1 in the set top box market and #2 in the personal video recorder market.
They are also set to enter the digital radio market as well as launch several new iPod attach devices. Currently their iPod attach range is constantly on back order and over coming weeks the company is set to crank up their home entertainment offering.
A Japanese brand, TEAC is today being positioned as a “Value for money” brand according to Peter Burnham, their Product and Marketing Manager. Using the marketing slogan “Look at TEAC, we give you more” Burnham, along with Senior Product and Marketing Manager Daniel Seow, have delivered impressive growth including 132% growth in the highly competitive LCD TV market where the company is only competing in the 19″ to 32″ market. In coming weeks, they will launch a HD 42″ LCD TV offering.
The company also plans to launch a new generation of home entertainment receivers with iPod docking capability, full 1080p up-scaling and 5.1 theatre capability.
Also proving popular is a new turntable that allows users to transfer records into a digital format.
“We are, without doubt, seen as a quality value brand with a Japanese heritage. Also helping is the fact that the brand is known in Australia and many consumers have had a good experience with a TEAC branded product. This helps. We are carving market share out by delivering the right mix of products at the right price” said Burnham.Around the world, the TEAC name is synonymous with high-quality, high performance consumer gear. They invented the reel to reel recorder and, in Japan, manufacture an entire spectrum of components for both high-fidelity audio systems and home theatre kits. They are also into aerospace and the manufacture of data storage equipment.
“We see growth potential across several categories including in the 2.1 channel sound market. We intend to launch several new products this year including a new home theatre Hi Fi system that will come out of Japan. We have an excellent range to choose from for the Australian market and this has helped with our growth” Said Seow.
“In the TV market we have concentrated on the secondary and small display market. In some of our models we have a DVD player built in and these models are proving extremely popular”. He added.
During the interview, ChannelNews was shown several new models including a new stand alone sound system and iPod docking station which was impressive.
“Design, look and feel is critical to our range. We are today working on a minimalistic look with retailers given a range of colours as options. For example our iPod docks such as our tall boy is proving extremely popular because it is sleek and consumers want to put their gear on show”, said Burnham.
“I am confident that with our new range and the expansion of our retail footprint we will be able to maintain the growth we have forecast”.
