TCS | Amped: Maurice van Heerden on building Planetworld

Loading player...
Planetworld, a distributor of audio gear from brands such as Sonos and Shure, has proven that there is still strong demand among South African consumers for specialist audio.
The company, which was founded by four brothers, has built a strong niche in the audio market, led by Sonos, but also representing brands such as JVC, Kenwood, Cambridge Audio, Alpine, Pioneer, Onkyo and Savant.
Planetworld co-founder, director and CEO Maurice van Heerden – one of the four Van Heerden brothers – joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) to chat about the history of the company, including:
• The 2008 acquisition of Planet Electronics, which formed the basis on what became Planetworld.
• The 2017 acquisition of Audiotronic, which brought the Sonos, Polk Audio, Onkyo and Dali brands to the stable.
• What it’s like going into business with siblings – and why it worked so well for Planetworld.
• Why Sonos has changed the world of audio, and why Planetworld believes there is still a huge market opportunity for the brand in South Africa.
In the TCS interview, Van Heerden also chats about the state of the economy and the impact – or not – that this has had on high-end audio sales.
Lastly, he unveils details about Planetworld’s new initiative, Rockstar Studios.
Don’t miss a great discussion!
2 May 2023 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS | Frogfoot sees bigger fibre deals coming

Frogfoot plans to keep buying smaller fibre network operators in South Africa’s suburbs as the market consolidates, but CEO Shane Chorley stopped short of ruling out a sale of the business. “I’d be ignorant to say that we would ignore any offer,” Chorley said on the latest episode of the…
8 Oct 40 min

Meet the CIO | Vodacom’s Mohamed Sami on the agentic future

Mohamed Sami, group chief information officer at Vodacom, says autonomous AI agents that resolve customer problems without handing them to a human are the next big shift in customer experience – and that it is closer than many think. Speaking on TechCentral’s Meet the CIO podcast series, brought to you…
5 Oct 44 min

TCS | Norrsken22’s Lexi Novitske on how China is winning African tech

Chinese companies have built their position in African technology one layer at a time – first phones and telecoms equipment, then fintech and now the AI models that local start-ups build on. American private capital, meanwhile, is pulling back. Lexi Novitske, general partner at Norrsken22, thinks US investors will regret…
1 Oct 28 min

TCS | Dominic White and Adam Ely on AI agents going rogue

AI agents are no longer a thought experiment for security teams. They are breaking out of test environments, hacking real companies and, according to one of our guests, already going rogue inside large businesses. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, TechCentral deputy editor Fanie van Rooyen talks to Dominic…
29 Sep 1 hr 26 min

TCS | Octotel’s Trevor van Zyl on the fibre merger question

Octotel CEO Trevor van Zyl joins the TechCentral Show to talk about where South Africa’s fibre market goes next – including a potential merger with MetroFibre Networx. Van Zyl told TechCentral that Octotel and MetroFibre Networx are assessing a combination that would create the country’s third-largest fibre network operator, with…
16 Sep 25 min