Audio Express Buys Quality Auto Sound
By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 10/14/2002
PHOENIX— Audio Express, a 35-store chain based here, purchased the 10-store chain Quality Auto Sound in Denver last month for an undisclosed sum.
The stores will be called "Quality Auto Sound, Home of the $1 Install," in keeping with Audio Express' $1 installation theme.
Audio Express merchandise manager Paul Gosswiller said the chain was purchased to help Audio Express expand into new markets. The company now operates locations in Phoenix and Tuscon, Ariz.; Albuquerque and Sante Fe, N.M.; Houston and El Paso, Texas; St. Louis; Las Vegas; Sacramento and Stockton, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; and now Denver.
Audio Express retained all employees with the exception of senior management. VP sales Mike Murphy and regional installation manager Paul Baird have also been retained.
Gosswiller said Quality Auto Sound will now carry similar lines to Audio Express stores (including Alpine, Boston Acoustics, Rockford Fosgate and Bazooka) but "just about everything else," will remain as before. "We are trying to keep their good name and their way of doing things. They've been in that community for 30 years," he said.
