Alberta, Canada – French speaker and headphone maker Focal entered into a joint venture with distributor B&B Electronics to expand Focal’s North American presence.
The joint venture, called Focal North America, will market the following product lines: Spirit headphones, Dimension soundbars and subwoofers, home theater speaker packages under the Sib & Co and Dôme names, and custom-installed residential and commercial speakers. Those products had been marketed in North America by Audio Plus Services, which will continue to market Focal’s stereo hi-fi speakers. Aftermarket car audio products will continue to be marketed by Orca Design in the U.S.
The joint venture “will begin to bring a stronger brand presence of these product” in North America, said Arnaud Hendoux, Focal-JMLab commercial director. “Focal North America will join our existing network of distributors, dealers and retail partners…”
B&B was selected to handle products in the U.S. “because of how well they have done in Canada with the Focal product and in translating product to the Canadian marketplace,” a spokesman told TWICE. B&B previously marketed only Focal car audio in Canada.
The venture will be headed by Ben Jensen, who will assume the role of president. GM Kim Jensen, category, marketing manager Jason Haberman, and newly appointed North American sales manager Sanjay Sharma report to Jensen.
“With the creation of this new joint venture, we will be expanding our focus on product training with additional team members in order to ensure consistency throughout the brand as well as giving retailers the proper tools to maintain a highly educated sales staff,” said Ben Jensen.
Privately held B&B Electronics, established in 1982, is a distributor of automotive, marine, and personal electronics in Canada and GPS telematics tracking systems in the U.S. The company, which is majority-owned by the Jensen family, acquired the Canadian distribution rights to Focal Car Audio from Orca Design in March 2010.
