Loewe secures investment, former Apple exec comes on-board

A group of investors that includes the former head of Apple Europe have acquired a “significant portion” of troubled German TV maker Loewe in a bid to take the brand to a younger customer base.

The investment group Panthera – which includes former Apple and Bang & Olufsen executive Jan Gesmar-Larsen and Munich-based entrepreneurs Constantin Sepmeier and Stefan Kalmund – took the unspecified stake in the firm.

In a statement the new owners said they want to bring the Loewe brand to a “wider, younger, design- and tech-savvy base of customers throughout Europe, Russia and China.”

Gesmar-Larsen will take responsibility for the “strategic realignment” of the firm, alongside Loewe’s CEO Matthias Harsch, who said: “With new generations of high-quality wireless TV and audio devices we will attract a wider audience going forward. Our customers will get a first taste of the new Loewe products at this year’s IFA.”

The firm will take a new corporate head office in Munich but will keep its existing development centres in Kronach and Hanover, and its main assembly centre in Kronach. The firm will also extend its collaboration with Chinese technology supplier Hisense.

Loewe filed for insolvency in October, but later the same month said it had received a written investment offer that could prove a “crucial milestone” for its restructuring efforts.

Commenting on the Panthera investment, Loewe UK managing director James McConnell said “this is the final piece of our restructuring jigsaw.”