After reading all of the posts on this subject I felt compelled to make comment on the move of Audison to Trends Electronics.

As many of you know, my wife Susan and I started Karz Electronics in 1999 with the help of a few very dear friends. Starting the company out of our garage at home, we were very proud of building the company into one of the most respected specialty independent distributors in Canada.

We started distributing Audison in 2001 through Red Mountain Audio, the US distributor at the time. In 2002, after the demise of Red Mountain, we started doing business directly with Elettromedia in Italy. Audison has been in business for over 23 years, and it was because of this and our trusted relationships with our dealers that we managed to "ramp up" Audison in Canada very quickly. In 2003 we had a record year with Audison.

In 2004 we sold Karz Electronics to Orca Design in the USA. Orca shared the same vision for the continued success of Karz. Phil Nease took over the control of Canada, while Sue and I headed to the USA to work at Orca's corporate offices.

At the beggining of 2005, I accepted a position as America's Area Manager for Elettromedia, the manufacturer of Audison, Hertz and Connection. I am responsible for working with our distributors in all of the America's for all of our brands.

At the 2005 CES show, we appointed Trends Electronics as the distributor for our Hertz brand. Later on in the year, Trends was appointed for our Connection brand. Trends commited to Elettromedia serious time and effort to launch Hertz and Connection in the Canadian market. With a very commited effort from the entire Trends team, they have done an incredible job with these two brands. This involved serious representative and internal staff training; not only on the product, but the philosophy of our company and our 20+ years of dedictation to the specialty independent dealer base around the world.

I have known Mitch and Grant, the owners of Trends for over 20 years. In fact I started my repping career under their management and direction. Over the years, especially when I owned Karz, we were serious competitors. Over the time of working against each other, one thing remained the same; our tremendous respect for the abilites of one another.

As of August 5th 2005, the management team at Elettromedia made a business descision to appoint Trends as the distributor for Audison in Canada.

Elettromedia and especially me personally, have tremendous respect for Phil Nease. I have been a personal friend of Phil and his brother Ron for over 20 years. There is no other person that comes to mind that I would trust to continue carrying on the tradition that Sue and I started with Karz Electronics. Phil is not only one of the few true car audio gurus in Canada, but is well respected by me as a person. He just "gets it".

I am not going to offer any opinions or information to anybody on this forum or in any other format on the reasons why this descion was made. I think that is truly unprofessional and is best left to the parties that the transaction involved. Our desicision to make this transition was one of business and future marketing plans. We wish the Karz team, especially Phil, all the best in the future.

Those of you who were dealer partners of Karz Electronics during my ownership know of my commitment to you as a business partner. I have always had the "whatever it takes" attitude to make sure that doing business with Karz was "Fun, Easy, and Profitable". I can assure you that this philosophy has not changed with my new position.

The entire team at Elettromedia would like to assure you that we have the outmost confidence in Trends and know they will continue to support you in the manner to which you have been accustomed.

Over the next few months, you are going to see some very exciting things from this new partnership. We are commited to making our specialty independent dealer stronger and more profitable. I hope none of you have a problem with that!

We wish you continued sucsess in your business and thank you for your continued support.

Regards,
Larry Penn
America's Area Manager
Elettromedia
Phone: 403-920-0925
Mobile: 403-554-4357
email: larry.penn@elettromedia.it

Damn...........that was good !!

Larry you really are the best !!

Well...........actually, Sue's the best ! But you are a close second.

Thanks Grant. Sue thanks you even more!

This just reinforces what I already thought of this company.
Its shows through out your business and with the ones you deal with.

Larry, nice post dude. I might not have purchased that much from you when you were at the helm of Karz, nonetheless, you were always of great service to me when I needed it. All the best to you and Sue.

[ August 23, 2005, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: MR2NR ]

Y'know - I could absolutely not agree more with that statement.

Wow that was taken in the wrong direction completely..
I have always held both of these companies in VERY HIGH REGARD!
Every thing I have heard about these companies have been positive, I wouldn’t have even checked this post if it wasn’t for larrys reply to my e-mail letting me know it was taken in a negative aspect. I would have thought most of you here would have known better by now( I don't play like that )

This just reinforces what I already thought of this company. < I respect and commend them.

Its shows through out your business and with the ones you deal with. < the dealers who spoke highly of them.

wow that could have been a nightmare and all due to me making an assumption that people knew my feelings towards these 2 fine companies.

If it helps at all, I read it as a compliment, myself.

Y'know - I could absolutely not agree more with that statement. </font>[/QUOTE]There is no possible way I could agree more either. John buddy, you read wrong..

Long Live Karz and Trends !!