Booming Boxes: Leon Speaker Corp. Grows Custom Market
Posted by GREG MIGLIORE July 05, 2007 09:50AM
Custom speaker manufacturer Leon Speaker Corp. is moving to Pittsfield Township as it prepares to launch an expansion.

The company has signed a lease for an 11,000 square-foot site at 715 W. Ellsworth where it will research, design and build speakers. It expects to move in mid-August from its Whitmore Lake facility.

Leon is part of a small part of the electronics markets, but the local company sees an opportunity to grow within the niche: Its 15 workers currently produce 3,000 to 5,000 custom-built speakers a year, and the owners project that they'll add 30 to 50 employees in the next few years.

Leon Speakers was founded in Ann Arbor in 1997 by former University of Michigan students Noah Kaplan and Jeff Gordon.

"We're coming back to Ann Arbor because everyone's leaving Ann Arbor," said Kaplan, the company's president. "We've always wanted the Ann Arbor address - we just couldn't afford it."

Leon offers an assortment of speakers for flat-panel televisions and other applications. The company prides itself on speed, and can produce speakers in three to five days. Prices range from $999 to about $5,000. The company plans to add upscale and entry-level speakers in the next few years to broaden its lineup, Kaplan said.

"We're going to take more creative risks," he said.

Leon Speakers has managed to set up a distribution network made up of mostly small retailers scattered throughout the country. In Michigan, 18 stores carry Leon products, including Paragon Sight & Sound in Ann Arbor, and Ann Arbor Audio in Brighton.

The company grew through "guerilla marketing," and overcame a plenty of growing pains, Kaplan said.

Kaplan and Gordon, who is chief executive officer, linked up at U-M and started building speakers by hand in 1995 when they were in their early 20s. They both played in local bands, and their first venture was a small radio station they launched by setting up a 30-foot antenna on the roof of a local house.

Leon's new building is the site of a former printing company. It's next to the Ann Arbor Airport and has about 5,000 square feet of space still on the market.

Ronald Dankert, Swisher Commercial president was the listing broker. Swisher Chief Executive Officer David Hamilton represented Leon's in the transaction.