Aiming to increase its presence in the global custom home theatre market and advance its corporate initiative to capitalise on high-value specialty display products and solutions, Planar has acquired the assets of Runco.
Runco has been a well-known brand in the high-end, custom home theatre market for the past two decades, and has developed some of the industry’s most advanced home theatre solutions, such as CineWide (patent pending) technology and Video Xtreme projection equipment. In addition, the Vidikron brand, including the award-winning Vision Series, has been part of Runco since 2002 after being founded in 1980.
“This combination offers us an exciting opportunity to accelerate our reach into the growing global market for high-end home theatre solutions, in line with the strategy we launched last summer,” comments Gerry Perkel, Planar president and chief executive officer. “Runco and Vidikron are synonymous with excellence in home theatre. In combining Runco’s heritage and industry-leading home theatre solutions with Planar’s global supply chain and broad display technology expertise, we have assembled some of the best talent in the industry to deliver the finest home theatre solutions to an expanding global marketplace.”
The full range of Planar, Runco and Vidikron custom home theatre offerings include industry-leading home theatre projectors, high performance plasma and LCD thin video displays, ambient-light-rejection projection screens, as well as video processors and video signal enhancers designed exclusively for the home theatre market. Planar intends to leverage its expertise in display engineering and development to expand the product portfolio over time for all three brands and introduce new custom solutions to its specialty home theatre channels and customers worldwide.
“Our loyal customers and custom dealers will see enhanced Runco and Vidikron offerings thanks to the tremendous benefits of Planar’s global resources,” says Sam Runco, founder and CEO of Runco International. “Planar brings substantial capabilities in specialty display technology beyond the home theatre market and well-developed global operations and supply chain management. Most importantly, Planar has a company philosophy akin to what Runco has always stood for – excellence in technology, outstanding quality and service and dedicated focus to its custom channel partners. I believe this combination can not only continue the approach to the market that has made Runco a leader, but it will also create even better products and support to enable our channel partners expanded success in the market .”
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