“We are unlocking the potential of the Marshall brand”: Marshall Group boasts $389m revenue following Zound Industries takeover
The company saw growth in all four quarters of 2023.
Credit: C Brandon/Redferns
The Marshall Group has had its best year yet with revenue reaching almost $389m (over £306m) in 2023, according to the company, an increase of 29% compared to the previous year. It saw growth across product categories, channels, and regions, and hit double-digit growth and profitability in all four quarters of the year.
Last year, Sweden’s Zound Industries bought Marshall Amplification, and rebranded itself as the Marshall Group thereafter. And going by newly released figures, the takeover looks to have been a success.
CEO Jeremy de Maillard says in a statement on Marshall’s website: “It has been a historic year for everyone at Marshall. We delivered strong growth and profitability for the third year in a row while successfully integrating into the Marshall Group. We are unlocking the potential of the Marshall brand while staying true to its legacy and investing into the future.
“We have invested heavily into our manufacturing site for premium amps and in our recording studio in Milton Keynes over the past six months, making them world-class facilities to satisfy the needs of guitarists and musicians. We will enter new product categories in the next twelve months, providing the unique Marshall experience to our audience in more aspects of their lives. And we will soon launch an entirely new digital experience, bringing together the entire Marshall world and product offer on marshall.com.”
Through 2023, Marshall shared a range of new products. They included the Studio JTM Amplifier range, in honour of what would have been founder Jim Marshall’s birthday, and the Motif II A.N.C., the latest generation of the noise-cancelling wireless headphones. Also launched in 2023 was the Middleton portable speaker, which has a quad-speaker set-up.
The company has altered its business model in the last couple of years to address the seasonal fluctuations it has long had to deal with, and to focus on its premium positioning too. As a result, both sales and profits are spread across quarters more evenly, for what should be smoother, more consistent growth in future.
Many commenters have criticised Zound’s focus on headphones rather than amps as being detrimental to the Marshall brand, but given the new figures, its focus on non-traditional Marshall hardware might just be what keeps the iconic amp brand alive and healthy in the future.