10-03-2006
Sonomax Hearing Healthcare Inc, Montreal, has acquired VitaSound Audio Inc, Ontario, Canada. VitaSound, a company engaged in the manufacture, sale and distribution of hearing aid instruments in Canada and the United States, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sonomax.
This acquisition will enable Sonomax to fast track the process of introducing its “store-within-a-store” hearing aid retail concept to the Canadian marketplace through a major retail chain. The first opening is scheduled for October 2006.
The cost to Sonomax for the acquisition is $100,000 payable in cash, plus a 2% royalty to a maximum of $200,000 on sales made in the next 2 years to VitaSound’s current customers.
Claude Allard, Sonomax senior vice president and director, has been named president of VitaSound.
“While it usually takes weeks, sometimes months, from the testing to the final fitting stage to obtain a conventional hearing aid, the Sonomax retail concept will introduce ‘the shopper’s experience’ to the hearing aid space—it will allow people to go shopping and return home with an affordable, custom-fit, comfortable, state-of-the-art, digital hearing aid that was fitted and programmed in about an hour,” Allard says.
Frank Skubski has joined VitaSound as vice president. He brings more than 15 years of experience to VitaSound having held senior management positions in sales and marketing in the hearing health care field. He will focus on developing and bringing this new concept of hearing health care to the Canadian market.
“In my experience hearing instruments have been out of reach for the average consumer due mainly to the cost of a traditional hearing aid,” Skubski says. “Our brand positioning of convenience and affordability coupled with a professional, trustworthy, and caring customer experience, meets the needs of our target audience. I am extremely excited about the potential of VitaSound and our ability to deliver better and affordable hearing to all Canadians.”
[SOURCE: Market Wire, September 20, 2006]
