From Genesis to Revelation

Reason to Celebrate!

From Genesis to Revelation

This year (2025), high-end distributor FOUR Car Audio will turn 20. We thought it might be fun to round up those years in tribute to this excellent specialist car audio company and avid supporter of Driving Sounds Magazine.

In the beginning, there was a mess! A really big mess. The market for car audio products had eaten itself. Having sold out to discount chains and lads mags and slashed prices to reach the budgets available to hapless youth, the entire sector was no longer profitable. If you wanted a subwoofer, you went to a well-known car accessory store and purchased one of extremely poor quality for little money and were nearly always disappointed by the result.

We still experience the results of this unnatural disaster when we speak with people at shows. Many now grown-up people blame these days for the poor reputation that car audio has in some circles. We often meet people who tell us of a car they owned when they were 20 that a mate put an install into, and it caught fire or sounded terrible, or they grew out of it.

Most specialist installers diversified into other avenues, including vehicle tracking and security. This was mainly fleet work, and although it was very hard work with small profit margins, the work flooded in as companies became tired of their drivers' poor productivity and the theft of and from their vehicles.

Enter two bright-eyed yet experienced industry professionals, company founders Brian Parton and Jas Dahele. Having both recently fallen out with the oppressive management of the high-end car speaker company they both worked for, they had a dream. They wanted to revive the car audio industry. They knew plenty of installers who lamented the passing of the golden days of car audio and felt they could offer a lucrative alternative to £19.99 car speakers that would provide for the burgeoning interest in high-quality audio to a better quality audience of music lovers.

It was a giant leap of faith. By January 2005 they had the support of a German audio company, Rainbow, which lacked a presence in the UK at that stage. Then, they had a stroke of luck. A popular UK brand of amplifiers and speakers, Genesis, found themselves without an active salesman. Initially, the match seemed almost perfect as Genesis already had a good reputation in the UK. Brian and Jas, now known as FOUR UK, initially found it easier to grow the UK brand than break an unknown German brand into the UK, and sales went in the right direction. They had also concluded deals to distribute Ixos cables.

Out came the Filofaxes, secondhand cars, a good deal of mileage, and many persuasive discussions with ex-car audio specialists. They found an inexpensive unit on a trading estate near where they both lived, although the number of products they were selling could have been stored in the boot of their cars!

Through their already long careers in the industry, they had many contacts around the world. Massimo Mizzadri, a sales manager at Italian company Elettromedia, had been watching them with interest.

After some negotiation, FOUR UK struck a sole UK distributor deal with Elettromedia for a range of Hertz speakers and Connection cables and accessories. They avoided conflict with Genesis by not stocking Audison products that crossed over in specification and price point. Although this worked initially, Genesis and FOUR UK soon parted company, and Genesis passed distribution on to another company.

With Elettromedia’s Audison brand on board, FOUR UK had the product line up to present itself as a one-stop shop for car audio products. Furthermore, they were brave enough to invest in stock. This meant that, unlike many of their competitors, they could ship products at short notice, meaning the specialists didn’t need to invest money in stock they may never need.

Establishing Rainbow, Audison and Hertz in the UK was tricky. Previously, almost dormant yet established brands began to wake up to this new opportunity, and many of the specialists that FOUR initially contacted had existing relationships with some of these and were reluctant to take a chance on these new kids on the block.

As the competition became more aggressive in their efforts, Brian and Jas had to find significant points of difference to compete. This was going to be a David Vs Goliath battle.

A policy of ruthlessness and risk coupled with a second-to-none service ethos was required. At this time, a good deal of editorial coverage was still available, and FOUR UK made the most of these opportunities. Messaging was always directed to the highest common denominator. They adopted a value-over-volume marketing strategy, which is still in place today.

Breaking a new brand in those pre-social media days could be done in two ways. Firstly, you could throw lots of money into marketing and become omnipresent. This was precisely the strategy that previous brands had used. Having observed this technique at close quarters, and watching these “loud noises” dissipate before quickly exiting the market, Brian and Jas decided to do it the hard way and grow the brands organically. In this approach, the quality of the product offering always comes first. Offering free training to reluctant specialists and hand-holding them through a process of reinvention, FOUR UK eventually began to establish itself as a sensible alternative. As costs were kept deliberately low, installers could profit more from selling Rainbow, Hertz and Audison products than other brands.

I think Brian and Jas would be happy to cite their relationship with Massimo and Elettromedia as instrumental in helping FOUR UK reach the heights that they inhabit right now. The Italian design and development centre is responsible for all Hertz and Audison products. With high ambitions, they supported FOUR UK through some tough times and are now reaping the rewards, with the UK market being one of the strongest performers in the world.

FOUR UK has experienced epic growth over the past few years. It now employs 10 people in roles it would never have believed it would need in its early days. The company ethos is implanted in every new employee, and as a result, it is seen as the most knowledgeable and important distributor of car audio products in the UK.

Cheers for 20 years FOUR UK. Here’s to many more!