LAS VEGAS — Home Entertainment Source (HES), a division of the Brand Source buying group, hosted a breakfast for its dealers Monday morning at the Bally’s resort, here. The event served as a kickoff for International CES and also as an opportunity for the organization’s leaders to address its dealers about how the group performed in 2006 and to indicate what can be expected in the future.
According to Bob Cole, the organization’s president, “HES had a grand year.”
Jim Ristow, HES’s director announced that the organization brought in $1.3 billion in the CE category for the year. He also said that the organization added 84 new storefronts in 2006, bringing its total of storefronts near 700.
Ristow said that the organization’s overall sales were up 30 percent on 2006 but that some members saw growth at rates as high as 45 percent.
He also pointed to the organization’s relationships with Custom Warehouse and Expert Warehouse. Ristow said that sales in the Custom Warehouse area of the business were up 68 percent since last year and that sales through Expert Warehouse were up 54 percent.
HES will next convene at its March Madness Summit 2007, to be held between March 25th and 28th in Dallas. The summit, termed “our CES” by Cole, will include a variety of events and activities including a series of speakers, educational sessions, video supplier presentations and more.
