HearUSA Signs Distribution Deal With AARPHearUSA, the U.S. chain of hearing-aid retail outlets, scored a major distribution deal with AARP Services, Inc. to offer discounted hearing aids and extended warranties to the nearly 40 million U.S. members of the world’s largest service organization for adults aged 50 and older. Next to an endorsement by Oprah, a distribution deal with AARP is one of the most coveted marketing prizes for companies selling to middle-aged-and-older consumers. AARP has long offered advice on hearing health but has been short on commercial offers for hearing aids to match the discounts it provides for vision products and general health insurance plans. The HearUSA deal should provide similar incentives for seniors to take care of their hearing needs, although the initial press release held back on details of the discounts and other offers that will initially be offered to customers in New Jersey and Florida and later throughout the United States.
The arrangement is good news for Siemens, which is a major investor in HearUSA and supplies most of the hearing-aid products sold by the company. In addition to providing a financial boost to HearUSA, the AARP deal may enable geographic expansion of its retail chain, which currently sells hearing aids through 180 company-owned hearing care centers in 10 states in the U.S. and its Hearing Care Network comprised of over 1,900 affiliated audiologists in 49 states.
HearUSA this week also announced second-quarter net income of $1.1 million, compared to a half-million-dollar loss in the previous quarter. Like other companies in the hearing-aid industry, HearUSA has seen a falloff in sales due to the recession, but cost-control measures in addition to the sale of its Canadian subsidiary boosted both the bottom line and balance sheet in the second quarter of 2009.
