ITALY — The year is 1963, and Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” wins a Grammy for Record of the Year. “Lawrence of Arabia” wins Best Picture at the Academy Awards and the Los Angeles Dodgers sweep the New York Yankees in the World Series. In the small town of Recanati, Italy, two friends named Bruno Baldoni and Vinicio Tanoni decide to build a workspace to produce guitar amplifiers for the booming music market. Recanati is in the Marches area of Italy and is considered a unique place where poetry and music has always accompanied its history.
From that small beginning, the company, named FBT after its founders, became a worldwide supplier of not only instrument amplifiers, but also pro audio gear including loudspeakers, mixing consoles, microphones and power amplifiers.
Today, FBT operates out of a 540,000-square-foot production facility that allows the company to stay true to their strong philosophy of nationally based quality — all products are made in Italy. The entire production cycle from R&D to the design of tooling dies, assembly of components and final construction of each product is managed and implemented in-house.
While FBT has a long history, its North American sales efforts have been approached in a steady and leveled manner. FBT products, especially the FBTMaxx, HiMaxx Powered speakers and the Modus 2-way line array systems, have seen success in the United States with corporate AV houses, installations and also regional sound company customers. A powered version of the Modus was introduced at Infocomm 2008 to excellent reviews.
Sales are handled through the FBT USA headquartered in Berlin Conn. Tom Concorde directs the operation and states, “A/V contractors and pro audio shops currently account for about 70% of FBT’s total sales in the U.S. That number is beginning to skew though as the Modus and Qube (designed during a joint partnership with Renkus-Heinz) systems are gaining favor with sound companies.”
The future looks and sounds very healthy for FBT with new products introduced and markets being expanded in North America. To quote company founder Vinicio Tanoni, “Our maturity as a company, like fine wine, improves with time.”
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For more information, please visit www.fbtusa.net/FBTProducts_.html
