While most of us in the display industry are still in the throws of the SID conference in Long Beach, CA, Planar Systems, Inc. announced that it has purchased home theater market icon Runco International, along with a 1 year consultancy agreement with namesake Sam Runco, which some in the industry credit for creating the entire CEDIA (high-end home theater) category. Runco home theater projectors are considered the gold standard in the industry, with a selling sweet spot between $10K and $250K-now that’s a specialty market.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
Projection Monthly

The deal includes both the Runco and Vidikron brands, and Planar said they plan to keep their existing brand that includes four DLP home theater projectors.

Except for a few operational changes, the Runco management team based in Foster City, CA was offered new positions with Planar-at the time of the announcement. Runco president, Bob Hanna, will assume a new role as VP Sales and Marketing in Planar’s home theater group, and report directly to Scott Hix.

But will the merge be a good thing for Planar? Architect of the deal and Planar VP of Business Development Brad Gleeson says off the record, "not-yes, hell-yes." His corporate speak goes more like this: "Runco’s proven brand prowess in the custom high-end channel was a perfect strategic fit with Planar’s specialty display heritage."

When asked about Sam Runco’s new role with the company Gleeson said Sam is under contract with Planar for one year. He holds no place on the board, (we were told he is not interested in that) and will devote his time in more of a "chief visionary" role for the group. Gleeson emphasized part of the reason Sam agreed to the merge was that Planar can bring Runco to a whole new level operationally. "We’re not going to mess with the ’secret sauce’ that made Runco so successful. But Planar can add back end operations like global service, logistics and supply chain management expertise that should go a long way to improve operational efficiencies," he said.

Our take — make no mistake this could be a very big win for Planar that include some excellent synergies with Scott Hix’s home theater group. For example, Runco purchased Videkron a few years back to differentiate the ultra-high end from the high- and medium-end products. Combined, Runco / Videkron have 900 US dealer / consultants doing a range of installs from ultra-luxury to basic services. The company also uses a dealer rep model with 20 rep companies nationwide. In one fell swoop, Hix has been handed one of the top (the top?) home theater channels in the industry.

The caveat here is indeed the ’secret sauce’ Gleeson referred to. How much of Sam, someone who has attained almost cult status in the high-end home theater industry, can be separated out from the company he worked decades to create? Gleeson said he will continue doing what he does best, developing world-class display devices that the industry has come to see as the gold standard. As the saying goes, "If it’s good enough for Sam, …". One other point-operationally, Runco has been in the capable hands of Bob Hanna for four years now, and as long as Planar can keep Bob happy (and Sam engaged) we should see some great things from this deal.