Word: macs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...cultivated an insanely loyal following over the past 50 years. Messer started accumulating the brand about 20 years ago, as soon as he could afford its bank-breaking prices. He spent $25,000 on his first system--a steal compared with the four 7-ft.-tall (2 m) XRT2K Mac loudspeakers he recently purchased for $45,000 each. "It's a big boy toy," he says. "If there were another brand better, I would get it, but 90% of what McIntosh makes is the best in its class...
...Japanese audio firms, with an investment by the private-equity group Ripplewood Holdings. Soon after, D&M went on a consolidation spree, snapping up additional A/V brands like Boston Acoustics, Snell Acoustics, Replay TV, Escient and recently Calrec Audio, a British company that builds mixing consoles for broadcast production. Mac fit as the crown jewel. "I call us a big start-up," says Victor Pacor, D&M's president. In the past fiscal year, the company had sales of almost $1 billion and earnings of $53 million...
...roots, making superior vacuum tubes and solid-state amplifiers with enormous amounts of power and bulletproof accuracy. (Higher power and lower distortion rates are what characterized the revolutionary amplifier that launched the company in 1949.) By adding leading-edge CD players, music servers for digital files and iPod docks, Mac would be set for the next generation of audiophiles. D&M Holdings liked the plan. "We told them, 'Here is an opportunity to create what you want,'" says Pacor. "You can't do that when you're struggling to make payroll." One such venture: the first McIntosh turntable, to address...
...also infused much needed capital and resources into Binghamton's baby to expand its global footprint. Since the takeover in May 2003, McIntosh's export business has boomed; nearly half its retail is now outside the U.S. Mac sales have increased 59%, while production costs have decreased 11.5%. The net effect: gross profits are up a stunning...
Rapid expansion has not altered the company's small-town feel. The Binghamton factory, while churning out a wide range of products, creates only a few of each per month, so outsourcing isn't efficient. Besides, customers swear by Mac's personal touch, with many making a pilgrimage to upstate New York for a factory tour. (Diehards bring their owner's manual so Randall can autograph it.) "Mac is one of those companies like Harley-Davidson that is nostalgic and supports U.S. jobs," says Schwartz. "How could you leave something like that?" There is still some hand assembly...