Harman’s Aus Move: AVT’s Response

“As you will now be fully aware, an announcement was made last Friday, 9th January 2020 that Harman Pro are ending their business relationship with AV Technology (avt) and they will be terminating the distribution of all their Pro Audio and AMX Control Products from the Sunday, 2nd February 2020.

“Please accept our apology for not contacting you sooner but we were unaware that this announcement was being released so quickly after the notice of termination was given.

“As we feel transparency is key, we were first informed of Harman’s full intention to terminate our agreement on the Monday, 23rd December 2019, three days after most businesses had finished for the Christmas break, including avt. We then received an official letter of termination on the Thursday, 2nd January 2020 giving us a 30 day notice period. This, after distributing both our beloved AMX and SVSi solutions for decades and then Harman Pro Audio range of products. All avt staff were informed on the Wednesday, 8th January 2020 after everyone at avt had returned from the Christmas break.

“Naturally we are extremely disappointed to be losing the Harman Pro Audio products after just a few short years, but we are completely lost for words in losing the AMX range. As you all well know, we have been successfully distributing AMX products for over 30 years, building an incredibly successful business and reputation. We have significantly grown the AMX business, and more recently the Audio business, in what has been a very competitive and challenging local market. We would like to acknowledge the team at Harman for many years of shared success. Everyone at avt will continue to work closely with the Harman team to facilitate a mutually satisfactory transition that ensures minimal disruption with our customers over this very short period.

“So from Monday 3rd February 2020, the constraints of our partnership with Harman have been lifted, enabling avt to release an all new and progressive market strategy, something that until this day we have been unable to implement. This announcement from Harman will help our company refocus on the current AV/IT/UC market place, a space in which product dynamics and the needs of all our customers are rapidly changing.

“As you can imagine the next few weeks will see number of changes within our avt business, but all our sales and management team will endeavour to reach out to you in various ways to outline our way forward and how you are all very much an integral and valuable part of the new avt.

“For those of you venturing to ISE in Amsterdam in early February we look forward to seeing you on our continuing partner stands. However, and more importantly, we look forward to announcing very shortly a series of roadshows launching a number of new initiatives with our partners.

“We thank you for all your fantastic support over the years and we all look forward to further strengthening our relationships during 2020 and beyond.”