Triangle: “The hi-fi speaker market has taken a major facelift thanks to vinyl and the Covid”

"We're not startupers, we're a bunch of old people," says Hugo Decelle, the young boss (33) of the French speaker brand Triangle. Forty years after its creation by Renaud de Vergnette, Triangle, which has 16 employees in its factory in Soissons (Aisne), was taken over in 2010 by Hugo's father before he handed over the reins to his son. "I embarked on the adventure out of necessity — the aging company was in difficulty — then out of passion, for the pleasure of defining product lines, creating them, manufacturing them, marketing them...", explains the entrepreneur. .

Like the loudspeaker manufacturers Focal in La Talaudière (42), Cabasse in the Var (83), Davis Acoustics in Troyes (10), or Jean-Marie Reynaud in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, Triangle which produces in Soissons (02) , campaigns for “made in France”, an exercise that remains a daily challenge. Hugo Decelle explains why at 20 Minutes.

Is manufacturing loudspeakers in France a challenge?

Do not believe that everything is simple. We assemble our loudspeakers in our Soissons factory, but 100% French manufacturing remains impossible for the time being. First for volume issues. We take out around 2,500 loudspeakers from our workshops each year, i.e. 250 to 300 units per month. The only question of the cabinetwork and the box of the enclosure does not allow a 100% French manufacture. As a result, our cabinetwork for our mid-range loudspeakers comes from Poland, or even Asia.

Why ?

We are sorely lacking in subcontractors in France and are struggling to find effective industrial skills in France. Finding a French cabinetmaker capable of delivering 300 boxes to us per month is an impossible task. But whatever happens, we prefer to assemble in France. And then, Picardy is where there is the soul of Triangle. Whatever we want to do, the components remain for their part manufactured in Asia. Supplying ourselves there is a necessity.

The acoustic enclosure, is it a French exception?

France was a pioneer in this universe, particularly with brands such as Elipson, which distinguished itself in the 1930s. There remains an industrial advance, an identity, with a very dynamic, vibrant, detailed sound, unlike the English sound which will be calmer, softer, analytical, with a fairly cold reproduction, close to that of the monitoring speakers that the we find in the studio.

This specificity is appreciated abroad where we achieve 60% of our turnover. Ten years ago, I thought that the loudspeaker market was a market for old people, but there is real know-how to be developed!

Economically, how have the past two years gone for Triangle?

We have increased our turnover by 50%, from 4 to 6 million euros. The hi-fi speaker market has taken a major facelift thanks to vinyl, which is experiencing real success, but also to Covid and confinement, periods during which consumers have refocused on their interior and have invested. These good results allow us to hire one or two people a year.

Are you suffering from the supply difficulties in Asia that we constantly hear about these days, especially for high-tech?

Our good results have helped us to have a little more cash. As a result, we bought a lot of parts upstream. But now, instead of three months of lead times, we expect between six and nine months of lead time. And in 2022, we will have to plan for twelve months!

Often, we see that the few electronic components available are bought by traders who resell them at a high price. We are also facing an increase in the cost of raw materials, such as paper or steel, the prices of which have increased by 20%. Not to mention the cost of containers, multiplied by ten between Asia and France!

You market only a few Bluetooth speakers and no headphones yet. Why not diversify further into these markets?

We are located on a ridge line between tradition and modernity. We are moving cautiously towards the general public with connected speakers. But we are clearly too small for the Bluetooth speaker. It's the worst market to go to for a company of our size. It is the most competitive. It is also the one where we find the Alexa speakers potentially sold at a loss and whose purpose remains to aggregate information on their users.

Headphones, on the other hand, are a real interesting track, we are thinking about it. But it will be around an audiophile and wired headphone project only, which can correspond to our DNA.