More Affordable Price Points Being Eyed By Thiel’s New CEO

Former Thiel President Kathy Gornik will not be part of the new Thiel, “at least for now,” said new CEO Bill Thomas, who’s been recovering from knee replacement surgery in Nashville, since the announcement of his group’s purchase of Thiel from Gornik last week. Thomas said he hoped Gornik would change her mind about a role in the company “because we could use her wisdom and knowledge,” but Thomas told us Gornik has retired. A Thiel spokesman reiterated that Gornik has made no official announcement of the deal or her future plans. Terms of the deal haven’t been made public.

Thomas said he and his two associates heard that Thiel was up for sale and “saw an opportunity.” The three own 100 percent of company stock, but only Thomas will have an active day-to-day role, he said. Thomas’s background is in manufacturing products for the construction business, he said. He plans to bring his skills in manufacturing efficiencies to Thiel, he said. Those include “different ways of purchasing” and bringing in automated equipment that uses computer numerical control for things like “exact cuts” that can speed up manufacturing, he said. He'll maintain testing processes in place at Thiel, adding that “quality control is what people are concerned about."

On how he plans to steer Thiel in the digital music world, Thomas said, although high-end speakers are a niche market, “there’s still a market if you get your efficiencies right.” Still, the company needs to come out with new products, he said, citing a dearth of new product introductions in recent years. He’s also looking at “maybe a different price range” that’s more broad-based to hit “another segment of the market.” Thomas said he wants to stay true to the design philosophy of company co-founder founder and engineer Jim Thiel, who passed away in 2009. Thomas plans to add two audio engineers to the staff, but “we have to see how we grow,” he said.

Thomas also plans to move more into the architectural market with in-wall, in-ceiling and on-wall products. He wants to “get the Thiel name out there” and get a bigger slice of that pie instead of just one SKU in each category of the custom electronics business. “We want a good, better, best offering,” he said. Thiel didn’t have the resources that the new group has to “put money back into the company,” Thomas said. He doesn’t want to change Jim Thiel’s design or quality control philosophies, and said, “hopefully we'll be able to live up to his name."

Thiel has dealers in 30 countries and revenue divides fairly evenly between domestic and international sales, Thomas said. While he “would love” domestic revenue to represent more of the business, he doesn’t see that happening any time soon. So he intends to put more emphasis on international distribution where there’s a strong demand for “quality American goods.” If “international sales are where it’s at, that’s where we have to go,” he said.

Thomas doesn’t expect big changes to the distribution model. The company sells through brick-and-mortar AV specialty dealers and Crutchfield and others online, but Thomas doesn’t expect to boost Thiel’s online presence for now. That could change, “but if I'm paying that kind of money for a speaker, I'd like to hear it first,” he said.