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The days of the NWT Audiotronic are over as the territory's flagship electronics businesses have changed buying groups.

Craig Kovatch, part-owner of newly branded Superior Audio Video Unlimited, stands behind the counter of the Hay River electronics dealer last Wednesday. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Hay River's Superior Sound Audiotronic is now Superior Audio Video Unlimited, and Roy's Audiotronic in Yellowknife is now Roy's Audio Video.

The name changes come as the stores join Audio Video Unlimited, a national buying group with 110 independent franchises across the country.

"Franchise groups come and go, and especially in the electronics market things change constantly, so we were looking for a change for the best buying power, to give the best prices," said Robin Williams, part-owner of Roy's Audio Video.

The Audio Video group buys collectively from a number of brand-name suppliers and has a buying power of about $200 million, said Jim Orr, president of Audio Video Unlimited.

"That helps us compete with the big-box retailers and we can compete with them on a day in, day out basis price-wise," Orr told News/North.

It is the buying group's first entrance into the Northern market -- an opportunity that arose after the Audiotronic franchise ran into financial difficulties last year.

Roy's led an exodus of more than 20 independent electronics franchisees across the country to the Audio Video banner from the embattled Audiotronic six months ago.

"They felt that the suite of services that we offer them with our flyer program, and our support, were superior to the competition, and that's why they joined us," Orr said.

In addition to customizable flyers, the store owners told News/North they were attracted to Audio Video by better financing deals for consumers, training services for employees and lower member cost -- which is a percentage of store sales on a monthly basis for the services of the buying group.

"It's not like the whole business has changed, it's just the business has gotten a little bit better," said Williams, emphasizing that, despite the rebranding, operations of the family-run business will not change.

Like Robin and Roy Williams, father and son Brian and Craig Kovatch run Superior, and Craig Kovatch agrees that the independent businesses, which are both more than 30 years old, will not change under the Audio Video banner.

"I guess it's more the branding changes but what we do here in the store does not change," Kovatch said. "Being a family business, like Roy and Robin, you can come in any day of the week and speak with the owners and deal with the owners. We've had 30-some odd years to refine what we do here as a business and what we do works and people seem to like that."

Orr said the Audio Video group is always open for new dealers to increase buying power but does not know of any other communities in the territory that can support a standalone electronics store.

Superior, which serves customers in Hay River, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Fort Resolution, and other NWT communities, plans to expand its presence in Fort Smith because the new buying group has bolstered the business's outlook for 2012, Kovatch said.

"We've got a pretty bullish outlook for the next year," he said.

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