A small business in Twickenham which brought the speaker giant Sonos to the UK is still thriving almost 20 years later.
Levco is an audio-visual equipment distributor which resells and represents both big and small companies, including their own brand BluCube.
Owner Simon Lever founded the company in 2005 and it has expanded to include trading divisions such as Simply Sound and Vision and Anatech Distributions, having initially worked in IT after graduating from the University of Sheffield with a mechanical engineering degree.
Lever said: “I always had a hankering to start a business.”
While on a sabbatical year from his job, Lever travelled to the US to find ideas within the consumer electronic business, leading him to discover Sonos.
He decided to collaborate with the company to introduce them to the UK market after seeing their potential in Silicon Valley.
Lever said: “I’ve always been very frustrated by the consumer electronic business in the UK, it’s always been a very poor experience, so I wondered if there were more opportunities there.
“We had a lot of fun selling and demonstrating it because it was groundbreaking technology.”
Levco began as a Sonos reseller, as Lever believed the brand would be of good quality and do well in the UK.
They were trailblazers in the UK speaker market, pulling £1.2million in revenue overnight.
The company currently operates in the smart home market, installing ceiling speakers, projectors, lighting and soundproof panels.
According to the website Greenmatch, 13.8 million houses in the UK have adopted smart home features as of 2024.
Lever said: “It’s very rare that those kinds of products come along and really take the market by storm in the way that it did.
“This is a kind of relatively small industry in the UK that has got lots of little facets and tentacles to it.”
Unlike some small business, Levco thrived during the pandemic because people were spending more money on home improvements due to lockdown.
Lever explained: “I wouldn’t say the growth was down to us at all.
“It was just right place, right time.”
A year ago, Lever was joined at Levco by co-owner Dave Frost, who acts as the operations director.
While Frost is responsible for the day-to-day running of the business, Lever focuses on finances, staff efficiency, stock management and the bigger picture of growth.
In the future, the company plans to shift towards a business-to-business model, seeking to strengthen the value-add service they give to the brands they represent, while still valuing consumer services.
After successfully taking the plunge with his business venture two decades ago, Lever is keen to encourage others thinking of doing the same.
He said: “Give it a go, it’s not as hard as people think.”
All pictures: Jacob Antigha