This March, Sonova Holding AG, one of the world’s leading providers of hearing care solutions, closed the acquisition of the consumer division of iconic German brand Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG. Sonova’s newly created Consumer Hearing business hopes to capitalise on growth opportunities in the booming true wireless headsets market and the emerging segment of speech-enhanced hearables, as well as boost Sennheiser’s strong position in audiophile headphones. Martin Grieder, Group Vice-President, Consumer Hearing – Sonova Group, spoke to Nandagopal Rajan about the acquisition, the future for Sennheiser and their plans for India. Excerpts:
What’s the logic behind Sonova’s acquisition of Sennheiser?
Sonova has been in the industry for over 70 years, providing hearing care to consumers. Over the last couple of years, we have been looking more closely at the consumer journey when it comes to hearing loss. And what we also know is that it takes an average of seven years for a consumer, once he’s diagnosed with hearing loss, to actually buy a hearing aid. There are a number of reasons for this. There’s cost, there’s stigma.
We started a couple of years ago to develop devices which offer solutions for situational hearing loss, like hearables with speech-in with speech enhanced functionalities. Sennheiser has a great brand known across the globe. They have access to consumer channels to sell their products which we don’t and they also have great technology and knowhow in the area of audio and sound. So, by bringing together the capabilities of these two companies, we are best positioned to win in this emerging market.
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Will the Sennheiser brand continue to exist or will it be all Sonova?
When you acquire a company, to a large extent you do it for its brand and for its people. So we will continue to build the Sennheiser brand. We also have an agreement with the Sennheiser family in perpetuity for the Sennheiser licence and obviously we want to keep the consumer bases on board.
Are you thinking about very customised products?
Yes. We are looking at developing hearing protection devices, or home protection devices, coupled with speech enhancement. As of today, Sennheiser has maybe three or four TV listeners in their hearing care portfolio and enjoys a strong position, not so much in India, but in other markets. Given their strong base in TV listeners, we are looking at expanding the hearing care portfolio under Sennheiser significantly with speech-enhanced hearables.
How bullish are you about the smart hearable segment where you also bring in a voice assistant and other smart features to the earphone, given that the true wireless segment gained a lot of traction during the pandemic?
The worldwide true wireless market is worth about $25 billion right now and it is estimated to grow to about $60 billion over the next couple of years because the attachment rate to the phones will increase significantly. We want to be capitalise on this great growth opportunity. We are looking at certain segments where we have strong competencies and where we can compete and where we can win. We just launched a sports wireless device which is doing really well. We have an innovation roadmap for that area, which would move us into smart hearables and sensors down the road.
Wearing comfort is another important aspect. Sonova has years of experience in custom-fit due to its hearing aids. We want to explore how we can bring in much higher wearing comfort and custom-fit to the hearable markets and have a high market share in that niche.
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What are your plans for India?
Over the last couple of years, the entry market or the entry price point market has grown faster than the mid range and premium market, though the premium market has started to grow as fast as the entry segment of late. That’s exciting for us and we want to really participate in that market.
