Wednesday, 17th of October 2012
TURTLE BEACH ACQUIRES DISTRIBUTION PARTNER LYGO INTERNATIONAL LTD
Number One Game Audio Company Extends European Base Through Acquisition of UK Distribution Company
VALHALLA, N.Y., & DARLINGTON, ENGLAND – Oct. 16, 2012 – Turtle Beach, pioneer and market-leader of the gaming headset category, announces today that it has acquired its exclusive U.K. and Ireland distributor, Lygo International Ltd. With the acquisition, Lygo International Ltd will serve in strengthening and elevating Turtle Beach’s European operations with support for sales, marketing, customer service and distribution partners.
Lygo’s corporate headquarters are based in Darlington (U.K.) and house its main logistical operation, warehousing and customer support center. Lygo also operates a satellite office in Southampton (U.K.) to handle its main sales operations. Lygo distributes Turtle Beach products to top retailers and e-tailers such as Argos, Game, HMV, Tesco and Amazon among others.
Turtle Beach is a global leader in game audio and offers the world’s most advanced gaming headsets including the top selling Ear Force X12, PX21, XP500, PX5; the upcoming Ear Force SEVEN Series in collaboration with Major League Gaming; and the line of Call of Duty®: Black Ops II licensed headsets. In its most recent analysis, The NPD Group reported Turtle Beach as the number one headsets/headphones manufacturer with a 51% market share for 2012 (Jan. 2012 – Aug. 2012) ranked on dollar volume, which is 20% growth year over year. This is despite the overall video game industry being down 25% (Jan-Aug 2011 vs. Jan-Aug 2012) at retail. NPD also recorded Turtle Beach as the top third-party video games console accessory manufacturer ranked on dollar volume for the month of August 2012. According to GfK Chart-Track, Turtle Beach is the number one gaming headset manufacturer in the U.K. with 50% revenue market share*.
“The acquisition of Lygo helps extend Turtle Beach’s global reach and expands the brand while better supporting consumers, developers, publishers and our European distribution partners,” said Juergen Stark, Chief Executive Officer, Turtle Beach. “In Lygo we’ve found a tremendous partner and valuable internal strengths as we look to evolve our international presence.”
Formed in 1999 to supply high quality and sensibly priced gaming accessories to the European market, Lygo became the exclusive distributor and support center for the Turtle Beach range of gaming headsets in the UK and Ireland in January 2011, thus offering the full range of Turtle Beach products to the UK market for the very first time. In 2012 Turtle Beach was also awarded the MCV Award for Best Peripherals and Accessories Brand based on Lygo’s cooperative marketing and PR efforts in the UK.
“We’re thrilled to build upon our long standing relationship with Turtle Beach and the Turtle Beach family,” said Paul Crooks, President, Lygo International Ltd. “Turtle Beach creates remarkable product and consistently innovates in the marketplace. We are very proud of our effort to advance the brand in the UK and support our customers.”
Lygo International Ltd has been an established channel for the vast line-up of gaming headsets that Turtle Beach manufactures, and will continue to distribute current and upcoming products.