| Vifa Denmark A/S | |
| Type: | Privately held |
| Hq Location: | Viborg, Denmark |
| Products: | Audio |
Vifa is a brand name used by Danish company Vifa Denmark A/S. In everyday speech, the brand name also refers to the company itself. The company designs and manufactures consumer and professional audio products.
The current company traces its roots to "Videbæk Højttalerfabrik" (eng: "The Videbæk Loudspeaker Factory"), a business founded in 1933 by N.C.Madsen, that manufactured electrodynamic loudspeaker drive units for the radio industry. Operating under the acronym Vifa since 1981, the original company was a respected OEM supplier for many high-end loudspeaker brands, until production ceased in 2009.
With a turbulent history of changing ownership and periods of economic hardship, leading to several mergers and restructuring efforts, the original company no longer exists. The Vifa brand, although loosely linked to the current business, is also no longer primarily associated with individual loudspeaker transducers. Starting in 2014, Vifa Denmark A/S is manufacturing a series of wireless loudspeaker systems for the consumer market, carrying the Vifa logo and named after the capital cities of Scandinavian nations.[1] Since 2023, the company is also making loudspeaker systems for the professional market.
The predecessor to Vifa was founded in 1933 by Niels Christian "N.C." Madsen, in the small town of Videbæk in western Denmark. Originally from the agricultural town of Hjerm near Holstebro, Madsen had developed a talent for mechanical and electrical engineering. At a time when electricity still wasn't available in many rural areas, he among other things built windmills and converted car engines for use as stationary generators by farmers. As he settled in Videbæk, he started a small automotive repair shop.
At the time, the Bang & Olufsen radio factory in Struer was importing electrodynamic loudspeaker drive units for their radio receivers out of France, and was looking to have them manufactured locally instead. They had approached Niels Christian Madsen's brother-in-law, who was a blacksmith, and although he was unable to meet their request, he instead put B&O in touch with Madsen. Together with two of his brothers, who were already employed at the Bang & Olufsen plant, Niels Christian Madsen started developing the required components. The experiments were successful, and Madsen's final designs were approved by B&O.
The early Videbæk speaker drive units were handmade, with metal parts manufactured in Madsen's auto workshop. Materials for the soft parts, such as cardboard diaphragms and leather suspensions, were sourced from local suppliers. Final assembly was taken care of by mrs. Madsen at the kitchen table. The business was eventually named "Videbæk Højttaler-fabrik" ("The Videbæk Loudspeaker Factory"), and in 1947, production moved into a dedicated factory building at Stationsvej 3, Videbæk.
In 1953, the "Aktieselskabet Videbæk Højttalerfabrik" corporation was formed, with N.C. Madsen as the only share owner. The product brand Hroswitha was at some point chosen for the transducers. The name is claimed to be an older spelling form of Videbæk, but likely just refers to the medieval Saxon poet of the same name.
Apart from B&O, other domestic radio manufacturers, such as SP Radio and Århus Radiolager, would be added to the customer list. Attempts were also made at export, although details are scarce on this point.
In 1961, preparing for his retirement, Niels Christian Madsen decided to sell the factory shares to his son, engineer Carl Christian Nørgaard Madsen, and Radionette founder Jan Wessel, who by then had established their own loudspeaker manufacturing business in Norway, known by the name SEAS ("Skandinavisk Elektro-Akustisk Selskap"). After the acquisition, technology was shared between the two plants, while the SEAS name and model nomenclature was applied to products from both factories. Videbæk-made models would have the words "SEAS Hroswitha" stamped into their magnet steel caps.
The Danish and Norwegian factories had already collaborated to some extent during SEAS' startup in the late 40's, with the Videbæk factory supplying SEAS with inner suspension parts, which were difficult to manufacture to precision. The two now experienced great growth together, and were formally made sister companies in 1971. While the facilities in Moss, Norway focused on technological development and production at the higher end of the product stack, the Videbæk factory continued to manufacture more traditional and lower-cost products.
Increasing global competition in the electronics industry during the 1970s led to lower profitability, and the two companies were hit by frequent strikes. Changes had to be made in order to remain relevant, and a new general manager was recruited from the Danish Radionette subsidiary Radio Visjon A/S. Decisions made in the following years, increasingly partial to the Videbæk factory, would cause escalating conflict between the two manufacturing sites. Among other things, attempts were made to covertly transfer the most profitable technology, tools and equipment to Videbæk. The transports were deemed illegal, however, and halted at the border.
Attempts were also made to hand off the Moss factory, but a sale never materialized. Preparations were then initiated for the Norwegian site to be closed instead. This was in turn prevented when unions and politicians became involved. The strategy again shifted, this time in order to separate the two factories by means of economic force. The Videbæk premises were subsequently mortgaged, ostensibly to buy the Seas shares,[2] but with the Danish stock as collateral. A clandestine arrangement with creditor Ringkøbing Landbobank in short order forced a one-day-notice 1,1 million DKK default upon SEAS, and also involved switching off the bank's Telex equipment until the next day.[3] The Videbæk factory was thus dropped into the hands of the bank and the management at the Danish site.
Nearly succeeding in bankrupting SEAS, the Danish site broke away in the late summer of 1981, eventually creating its own identity under the brand name "Vifa" (an abbreviation of "Videbæk Fabrikker"). While the first Vifa-branded products were simply a continuation of older SEAS products, and predominantly made using SEAS-owned tools, Vifa would over the next few years develop and bring to market their own complete range of loudspeaker drivers, in time rising to become a major player in the European loudspeaker business. A US subsidiary was established in 1982.
With the acquisition of high-end manufacturer Scan-Speak in 1987-89, the Vifa-Speak A/S corporation was formed. Scan-Speak kept its autonomy in research and development, but production was eventually moved to Videbæk in order to benefit from Vifa's infrastructure and finances. The two brands were kept separate, and Vifa began gearing their own production towards higher quality speaker drivers. A resulting "Premium Line" model program entered the market in the mid-90s, with a couple of notable innovations.
In 2000, Vifa-Speak took over the shares of troubled fellow Danish loudspeaker manufacturer Peerless Fabrikkerne AS. Together, they formed DST (Danish Sound Technology),[4] representing some of the finest know-how in the loudspeaker business. Combining their manufacturing structures would prove difficult, though: While Vifa-Speak's production made extensive use of standardized sub-assembly, allowing for great flexibility towards their customers, Peerless' manufacturing closely resembled a sequential production line. While the latter was suitable for uniform high-volume production, any level of design customization would carry an intrinsicly higher cost. It also placed different requirements on e.g. the curing time of glue, necessitating a continued double stockpile of chemicals and other materials.
DST's product tree would largely remain the same, and marketing continued under the well-established Vifa, Scan-Speak and Peerless brand names. Although introducing an all-new Logic brand to target lower-cost segments, limited synergy thus resulted from the merger in practice. The economical boost would also prove temporary: While widely renowned for fine quality and with a history even predating the Videbæk factory, Peerless had at the time of the merger been unable to turn a profit for two decades. Funds spent developing their NXT flat-panel loudspeaker technology, although promising, failed to deliver returns for DST. On the manufacturing side, Vifa's commissioning of a production facility in Panyu, China one year prior to the merger further drained DST. In order to generate much-needed funds, the Vifa brand was finally sold to Guoguang Electric Corp. in 2004.
In 2005, DST was acquired by startup company Tymphany. Based in Cupertino, California, they were at the time known for their prototype LAT ("Linear Array Transducer", first shown at CES 2005) subwoofer concept. The LAT technology ultimately found little success in the market, and growing financial concerns led the company to move most of their remaining manufacturing operations to the Far East, followed by the final sale of these activities to Chinese investors in 2008.
Around the time of Tymphany's acquisition of DST, the Vifa brand was put into use in the marketing of home theatre systems, including the "Touch", "Sense" and "Reference" series of A/V receivers and 5.1 channel loudspeaker sets, all manufactured in China. Although it is unclear when these product ranges were introduced and discontinued, and which regions they were sold in, it seems to have been a relatively short-lived and poorly documented affair.
In 2009, the Scan-Speak branch ended up in ownership of a group of Danish investors, consisting among others of former Scan-Speak management.[5] [6] Some of Vifa's original production tools were included, and a small portion of Vifa's classic loudspeaker drive unit programme remains in production as part of Scan-Speak's Discovery product line. Scan-Speak is now an independent company in the Eastech Group and reside in Vifa's old facilities in Videbæk, Denmark.[7]
Tymphany, now headquartered in Hong Kong, has kept the Peerless brand for their ODM manufacture of loudspeaker drivers, but also covering amplifiers for the professional audio segment. Some of Peerless' original designs are still manufactured, and retain Peerless' traditional 6-digit product codes. Parts of the old Vifa product range was initially continued by Tymphany as "Peerless V-Line", avoiding trademark disputes, although only a few of these products are currently (2023) found in their catalogue.
After gradually disappearing from its traditional grounds following the Tymphany merger, the Vifa brand was revived by new owners Vifa Denmark A/S in Viborg, Denmark in 2014. Trading on classic Nordic design traditions and naming their products after the Nordic capital cities, the company announced its first wireless speaker, Copenhagen, supporting Apple Airplay the same year.[8] This was followed by the portable Bluetooth-based Helsinki (2015) and Oslo (2016) speakers, and the Stockholm Hi-Fi soundbar, all adorned with textiles from the Danish textile manufacturer, Kvadrat.
Initially concentrating on household and lifestyle audio devices, Vifa now also manufacture loudspeakers and line arrays for professional installation and sound reinforcement.
To establish itself on the international market, Vifa was represented by the sales company SISO. For a brief period in the late 70's and early 80's, export units would therefore also carry the SISO logo.
From the 1980s and well into the new millennium, Vifa speaker drivers were widely used among respected loudspeaker brands, such as Aerial Acoustics, Apogee, Dali, JPW, Mission, Ruark, Snell Acoustics, Sony, Thiel, Vandersteen Audio, and many more.
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