Your Industrial Park Neighbors: NHT

Benicia Patch periodically profiles businesses located in the Industrial Park. Following is an interview with John Johnsen, co-owner of NHT, known worldwide for its award-winning speakers.

How long has NHT been located in the Industrial Park?
NHT has been in the Industrial Park for twenty-five years. Both our distribution center and this showroom and design center are located in the park. We suggest an appointment to visit our showroom.

How did you get into the business?
We are all consumer electronics veterans. We’ve been in the business for sometime. My partner, Chris Byrne, saw opportunities to do things in the speaker business that hadn’t been done before. We identified a niche. It is high-end, not high-price.

How does that work? We are like a lot of enthusiasts that like high-fi and home theater gear. We like high-end systems, $20,000 –$50,000. Only a few people can afford that. There is a lot added onto very high-end products not really germane to their performance. We rendered down the high-end notions and deliver high-end speakers starting at $99 each. When many manufacturers design a small speaker they try to make it do a lot and it doesn’t do any one thing particularly well. So we say, it won’t have much base. What it does have is going to be what a $10,000 speaker has. Industry magazines recognize us for that. We have won many awards.

What is your most-popular product?
I think it’s important for anyone who knows us to know we start at $99. That would be our SuperZero 2.0. So if you invest $800 with us, expect a lot. We carry third-party products: Marantz, connecting cables, speaker stands, and so on. Home theater drives the bulk of our business. A set could include five speakers, a subwoofer and about thirty mix and match combinations. We refer clients to a list of preferred custom installers.

What are the benefits of your Industrial Park location?
It’s a combination of talent pool, logistical location, ease of getting to the Port of Oakland, and affordability. There is an intersection of freeways; you can go where you need to go with the product.How do you get the word out that you are in the Industrial Park?We reach out through the Chamber of Commerce, my work on the economic development board, community involvement and moderate advertising. If there is a problem with the Industrial Park, it is lack of visibility and lack of a central point where people can find out what’s here.

 
Anything else you would like to share with your Benicia neighbors?
Something else we do that is important to Benicia is our contribution to the tax base. We just started selling directly to the public in the past couple of years. There is no middleman. That is generating tax for the city and the state from both wholesale and retail sales.