PRO Group Grows Again, Inking Crutchfield

Staff -- TWICE, 9/17/2001

NORTHBROOK, ILL. — PRO Group, the specialty audio/video, home installation and autosound buying group, has added a second member in as many weeks, Crutchfield Corp.

With the addition of Crutchfield and Brandsmart-Midwest of Kansas City, which joined the group last week, Pro Group's 15 member 2001 retail sales will exceed $1.8 billion, according to the group.

Crutchfield, which was founded in 1974 by Bill Crutchfield, has a reputation for "outstanding customer service, product merchandising expertise and cooperative vendor relations" the Pro Group said in a statement announcing the addition. Crutchfield is known for its catalog and Crutchfield.com Web sites.

"Pro Group and Crutchfield have discussed the affiliation for several years, but we needed all the affected parties, the Pro Group members, Crutchfield and our vendor-partners, to get more comfortable with the evolution of Web/catalog based merchandising with more traditional PRO Group storefront retail. All the parties are very excited about what we're doing," commented Roger Heuberger, Pro Group executive director/COO.

Bill Crutchfield added, "The challenges of today's economy encourage greater collective thinking. Along with the billion-dollar buying power the group affords, we are looking forward to participating in the Pro Group's well known idea exchange forums."