This week, ProSource announced that it was expanding its leadership team by adding well-known retail industry executive Jim Pearse as its new President. The duties of the president were once part of CEO Dave Workman’s role, but the group says this management team expansion is now necessary to support the group’s continued growth.
Buying Groups
Azione Unlimited Merges with Nationwide Marketing Group
Azione Unlimited announced today that it has partnered with Nationwide Marketing Group, a group representing more than 14,000 storefronts made up largely of appliance, furniture, and electronics retailers. While Nationwide may not be an immediately obvious choice as a partner for Azione, the custom integration specialist group maintains that it makes perfect sense as they say integrators must be able “to address all of their clients’ needs, no matter the room in the home.”
See more on the merger of Azione Unlimited and Nationwide Marketing Group
[Read more…] about Azione Unlimited Merges with Nationwide Marketing GroupEmerald: The Show WILL Go On!

Emerald Letter Tries to Nail Down Remaining Exhibitors
On Wednesday, Emerald emailed a letter to exhibitors that appears to be an attempt to stem the outflow of companies that have canceled their participation in the CEDIA Expo 2021 – 42 brands according to Strata-gee’s tracking – and encourage those exhibitors that have not yet abandoned the show from leaving. Signed by Emerald executives Brian Pagel and Jason McGraw, the letter declared “the show is still very much on as planned.”
See more on the Emerald attempt to stem the tide leaving Expo
[Read more…] about Emerald: The Show WILL Go On!High-End Faces A Matter of Survival in Pandemic’s Wake; Here’s What We Should Do Now
In This GUEST POST, Bill Leebens Takes You on a Journey from ‘Me’ to ‘We’ & Proposes a New Industry Association

A few months ago, I unexpectedly became unemployed. There had been occasions in my career when it was clear that I needed to get the hell out of Dodge —but this wasn’t one of them.
A new job would not appear overnight; that was obvious. I was up to my ears in fearful self-absorption.
Then things changed…and the world was in upheaval.
This changed everything…
[Read more…] about High-End Faces A Matter of Survival in Pandemic’s Wake; Here’s What We Should Do NowSound United and HTSA Partner to Expand Market Availability of Top Audio Brands

Sound United LLC, the parent company to brands such as Denon, Marantz, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, Classé, and Boston Acoustics, announced on Tuesday that they have joined forces with Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA), a leading trade consortium of custom integration dealers. This new partnership will expand availability of some of the top specialty audio brands throughout North America, thanks to HTSA’s extensive network of top dealers.
See more on this Sound United and HTSA partnership…
[Read more…] about Sound United and HTSA Partner to Expand Market Availability of Top Audio BrandsUninvited Guest: Attendees of ProSource Summit 2020 Exposed to Coronavirus COVID-19

ProSource Confirms COVID-19 Exposure from Exhibitor at Annual Member Conference
ProSource wrapped up their annual Summit, this year known as Summit 2020 on March 11th. The event had barely wrapped up when within days many other organizations began canceling their events due to the rapidly propagating coronavirus epidemic sweeping across the U.S. ProSource barely got their event completed just as health authorities around the country began restricting gatherings such as conferences like theirs which congregate a lot of people in one place at one time.
And now we know that there was another attendee at the ProSource Summit 2020 – coronavirus COVID-19, an uninvited guest, visited the group’s annual event..
See more on COVID-19 at ProSource Summit 2020…
[Read more…] about Uninvited Guest: Attendees of ProSource Summit 2020 Exposed to Coronavirus COVID-19Expanding Local Presence, SnapAV Acquires Volutone
BREAKING NEWS
SnapAV, a leading provider of custom integration brands and products, announced today that it has acquired Volutone, a respected California-based distributor with seven locations throughout California and Nevada. The move expands SnapAV’s local touch points in a key market, a strategy that first emerged with their earlier acquisition of another large regional distributor in March of this year, Chicago’s Allnet Distributing.
See more on this dramatic advancement of SnapAV’s local strategy… [Read more…] about Expanding Local Presence, SnapAV Acquires Volutone
Does the WAVE/AVAD Deal Signal a New Era in Distribution?
As we reported last week, the world learned that the private equity group that owns AVAD has made another deal, acquiring Houston, TX-based WAVE Electronics, another major custom integration distribution company. After an initial ripple of excitement over the deal, most of us went back to our daily lives – looking at this deal as nothing more than just another private equity acquisition. But there may be more here than meets the eye…
See how distribution is changing… [Read more…] about Does the WAVE/AVAD Deal Signal a New Era in Distribution?
ProSource Partners with SnapAV on Select Brands
ProSource, a large industry dealer buying group, announced this morning that they are partnering with SnapAV, a diversified manufacturer/distributor of a wide group of diverse brands, to offer programs on several of their brands to group members. According to the ProSource management, members will be offered access to SnapAV’s Araknis, Luma, OvrC, Visualint, and WattBox brands.
See more on this ProSource announcement which is a bit unusual… [Read more…] about ProSource Partners with SnapAV on Select Brands
ProSource Adds a Lucky 13 New Members
ProSource, one of the larger retail buying groups in the U.S. announced today that it has added 13 new members to their organization. As a multi-tiered group, these new additions were in two different groups – 12 dealers were added as custom integrator members, while one was added as an Associate PRO level member.