12volt News Headlines
"Sony Mobile has major plans for 2010" Mike Kahn - Director Sony Mobile
12volt, USA – The 12volt scene across the US is definitely on the upswing in most parts of the country. Extreme weather conditions continue to hamper business in the northeast – other than that the 12volt business is crankin’.
This weekend, March 6 & 7, spring break events kick off with the Spring Break Jam on South Padre Island, TX. The following weekend, March 13 & 14 its the 24th Annual Spring Break Nationals in Daytona Beach, FL.
Sony Mobile is back in a big way at both of these events. Mike Kahn, Director of Sony’s Mobile Business Unit, is enthusiastic about the upcoming season. In a Sony Mobile Center 12volt Conversations segment Kahn detailed the Company’s spring rollout of new 12volt products and Sony’s major “Back in the Game” outlook for Sony Mobile in 2010. Click on the play arrow on the audio bar to listen to Kahn’s message.
Click arrow on audio bar to listen
to a 12 Volt Conversations
with Sony’s Mike Kahn.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
"12 dealers really turned out for our show" - Josh Eatherly - P&E Distributors
On behalf of Spring Break Padre David MacDonald told 12voltnews.com “We are thrilled to have Sony on our show floor in Padre. They will add so much for our spectators’ to experience. Barry Bellar, who is coordinating Sony’s presence through Eagle Distributors added “We will have a new show car for the territory in the booth and a ton of handouts for the crowd. Sony will definitely rock South Padre”.
Spring Break Nationals founder Paul Papadeus commented “Sony definitely sees the light. They recognize as an industry we must get back to promoting products to the public and an event like SBN is a perfect venue. Sony will have a major presence at our upcoming event on March 13th and 14th”.
Conversations with distributors from the northwest, the south, the gulf coast, the southeast and even Michigan all indicate business is running substantially ahead of 2009 through the first 2 months of this year.
The P&E Show Sunday, February 28th, is a shining example. 12voltnews.com saw first hand that business has rebounded in 2010. 12volt retailers noted they are seeing store traffic and their customers are buying. Vendors exhibiting at the Nashville event also indicated a very nice uptick in their business so far in 2010.
The recent event in Tulsa with Rob Rice’s CarToys also points to good business at retail. “Our participation in the Darryl Starbird Show was definitely a big win for us” Rice told 12voltnews.com. “It was probably the best promotion we have ever done. The spin to win jackpot machine printed out 2150 CarToys’ discount coupons for customers to bring to our store for meaningful discounts. We are seeing the coupons in our store and expect customers will be using the coupons for purchases over the coming weeks and months”. Rice reported that CarToys is running ahead for the first 2 months of this year and already has a good jump on a March increase.
Matt Severaid
Upcoming distributor events scheduled for March include N&H on the 4th, DAS on the 6th, Shiflet&Dickson 7th & 8th, LESCO at SBN the 13th & 14th, Audio America at SBN the 13th & 14th, East Coast on the 18th,
Big Daddy’s on the 25th, MidStates/ RTI -Shreveport on the 27th & 28th, Ultimate Marketing on the 27th and Angel Distributing on the 28th.
Companies and people are also the move. Matt Severaid now calls mObridge home. Severaid has joined the company as Director of Customer Relations. Following a two week orientation at the company’s facility in Australia Severaid settled into his California office. “In the near future you will hear a lot from us as we ship new products with groundbreaking technology and set our rep/distribution network in place” Severaid relayed to 12voltnews.com.
Kicker has appointed Falcon Sales and Marketing as the Company’s rep firm in Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Jeff Pedersen told 12voltnews.com “Our firm is so pleased to join the Kicker family. We look forward to working with
12volt retailers throughout our territory to grow the Kicker brand. The new docking systems, in ear monitors and headphones are great additions to the Kicker lineup and profit opportunities for 12volt retailers”,
Log onto 12voltnews.com each business day for fresh industry news.
