Koch Entertainment

About Koch Entertainment

Koch Entertainment LP is a North American entertainment company with offices in New York, Nashville, and Toronto. It is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe and in Asia under the name Koch Universal. The company began in 1975 as Koch International. Founded by Franz Koch, Koch International was an independent Austrian record label and music distribution company that specialized in German and classical music recordings. Today, it operates under the name Koch Entertainment, a music, film, and television distribution company that was started in 1987 by Franz's son Michael. By 1991, Koch had become one of the first national independent distributors of domestic labels in the U.S. by offering an alternative to the traditional system of regional independent distribution or national major label distribution.

In 1992, Koch was ranked #315 on Inc. Magazine’s list of America’s 500 fastest-growing private companies, and has since grown into an entertainment conglomerate. Today, it is generally regarded as the largest independent music, film and video distributor in North America, and currently holds the second highest market share of any independent in the U.S. Billboard Magazine and CNN cited Koch as the #1 Independent Distributor and Record Label in North America, and Entrepreneur Magazine praised Koch as “a multimedia force to be reckoned with." Koch has consecutively received the nomination for Distributor of the Year from 2001-2007 by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM).

Koch expanded into the Canadian market in 1995 by forming the Toronto-based Koch Entertainment Canada. It was announced in 2005 that Koch was acquired by Canadian company Entertainment One (formerly Row Entertainment) for a purchase price of approximately $80 million. Since then, both Entertainment One and Koch have been sold to the London based firm Marwyn Investment Management LLP for a purchase price of $188 million dollars. As a result of this acquisition, the company is now publicly traded on the Alternative Investments Market. In May of 2007, Koch also acquired Navarre Entertainment Media, further adding to its roster of distributed labels. According to industry press releases, with Koch's 2006 net sales of $130 million and Navarre's 2006 net sales of $60 million, the merger places their combined annual revenue at $190 million, giving Koch second place in independent music distribution market share (behind only the Alternative Distribution Alliance owned by the Warner Music Group).

Website: www.kochent.com