NuVision Says It Aims to Fill High-End Specialty LCD TV Niche

Now in its fourth generation of product, the NuVision brand was launched by a privately held company before a Japanese company took a controlling interest in the firm. In the past year, Cat Trail became sole owner of NuVision, with a mission to give its dealers a protected marketplace for high-end TVs. NuVision plans to support its limited- distribution specialty AV dealers with a strategy of high margins and zero Internet sales.

“NuVision is one of the few TV companies out there where you can Google it but you won’t find any information on the Web,” said Chris Porter, NuVision vice president of engineering and product management. “There’s no pricing, you can’t find this stuff on the gray market. You may be able to find something on eBay if someone is selling one, but that’s the extent of it. That’s the value to our dealer. We give them a protected marketplace and protected margins.” NuVision boasts retail profit margins around 35 percent, compared with typical big-box store margins in the single digits or low teens, executives there said.

NuVision chose Soho House as its venue to reinforce the exclusive-club positioning it’s taking with its reseller base, which currently comprises 384 dealers from the CEDIA channel. “We aren’t aiming for much more than that,” said David Hester, vice chairman. “But what we will do is make sure that our dealers always provide the correct services that we want for them to be able to sell in high-end TV.” That includes in-home servicing on TVs 42 inches and smaller, he said.

NuVision recently polled dealers and found that above all they want reliability, picture quality and margin in a high-end TV supplier, Hester said. Hester’s vision is for its CEDIA-level dealers to position NuVision products in the class of fine wines, jewelry or luxury automobiles, he said. “It’s a bit like if you were buying a diamond,” he said. “You wouldn’t buy a diamond on the Internet because you would want to see the three Cs -- clarity, cut, carat size. If you're looking for the best in picture quality, you have to go see it.”

That’s why the company is committed to retail specialists, and only specialists, Hester said. “We don’t want the Saturday kid who’s in there selling a product just because he’s on a spiff or because he knows no better than Samsung or Sony,” he said. We want someone who’s discerning enough and experienced in his field that he’s able to advise the customer why they should buy that TV.”

NuVision is phasing out its current line of 42-inch 60Hz LCD TVs and is shipping the first product in its new Lucidium FX5 series of 120Hz TVs this month. NuVision’s 65-inch LCD TV, due to ship later this year, will list at $11,999. Its 42-inch model lists for $1,999, which Hester said is a significant bump above a comparable Samsung model at $1,699.

For that 18 percent premium, consumers will get commensurately more reliability, quality and service in the product, Hester said. The company offers a two-year warranty versus the standard one-year note from high-volume manufacturers “because we believe in our product,” Hester said. “We don’t just go out there and re-brand someone else’s TV. We take the best panels, best chipsets and best components.” Its limited production runs enable better quality control, he said, saying production runs were stopped four times on the new 42-inch model “to be sure that each product was as good as the first that came off.” NuVision sources its sets from makers in Korea and China, he said.

NuVision won’t be first to market with new technologies, but will “wait until the bugs are ironed out,” Hester said. At next September’s CEDIA Expo in Atlanta, the company plans to roll out a line of super-slim TVs with LED backlighting. In early 2010, NuVision will follow with TVs sporting local- dimming technology, he said. Ethernet-packed TVs are on the drawing board as well, he said.

To our queries how NuVision plans to remain competitive in such a tough economic environment, Hester said the company’s limited production strategy puts it at an advantage. “People ask how can we be successful when companies like Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer are all losing billions and billions,” he said. “We don’t need to be competing at the bottom end with high-volume companies like Vizio that are driving margins down. “We're into producing a limited number of TVs that we sell at the right price at the right margin for us, for our suppliers and our dealers. Our business is about selling a small number of units to go into the top-end homes only.”

In addition to offering longer warranties, selling points for dealers include picture performance based on what NuVision claims is a superior method of 120Hz technology that recreates each frame rate five times rather than using black- frame insertion or frame doubling to achieve a higher frame rate, he said. Also, he said, “we don’t have to put a reflective film on the TV to reduce glare. We have better colors and picture quality in the first place.”

NuVision also plans to differentiate itself with 32- and 37-inch TVs offering 120 Hz technology while most other manufacturers initiate that feature in 42-inch and larger sets, he said. “If you're going to have quality, you should have it in every room of the house,” he said. The only 60 Hz model in the company line will be 19 inches, he said.

Product aesthetics also are part of the upscale, differentiated positioning, he said. The 19-inch model, due out this fall, will come in white and stainless steel-framed versions, he said. The 65-inch model will have a subdued logo on the lower left of the bezel “that’s more befitting the high-end home.” he said. The company also plans different finishes throughout the line, he said.

Despite a hard-hit luxury marketplace, a market still exists for high-end flat-panel TVs, Hester said. “We know there’s an opportunity,” he said. “Market share is there more than ever before because of the decline of some of the other people and because of the problems of some of them moving into that space. At the end of the day, a Samsung is a Samsung and a Sony is a Sony.”