Costa Mesa’s QSC Audio Products LLC is probably one of the oldest Orange County companies you’ve never heard of.
The company makes amplifiers, speakers, digital control systems and related products for big audio installations and professional musicians.
It’s been making audio gear here since 1968.
QSC has come a long way from its early days, when cofounders Pat Quilter and Barry Andrews sold amplifiers called the Duck and the Quilter Sound Thing from a makeshift storefront in an industrial section of Costa Mesa.
Early models were praised by members of Led Zeppelin, Cream, The Doors and others of the day, according to the company’s website.
The past six years have seen a big transition in which the original founders have taken more of a backseat role and brought in executives from other industries.
Rock Vibe
QSC still retains a bit of its rock vibe, according to Jatan Shah, the company’s chief finance officer, technology chief and senior vice president of strategic operations.
“I am a very bad guitarist,” Shah said. “It’s kind of embarrassing, especially coming to a pro audio company where there are a lot of professional musicians.”
QSC didn’t handpick Shah for his guitar skills. In just a year, he’s helped the privately held company cut costs and boost profits.
Shah, 34, was given the Rising Star Award at last week’s CFO of the Year awards presented by the Business Journal and the Orange County and Long Beach chapter of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.
He was recruited to the post at QSC after spending five years at management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in Irvine.
“When I came for my interview, I came in a suit,” he said. “Everyone asked me not to wear a suit for the second one. I’ve learned it’s a very casual culture but very serious about work.”
QSC has doubled in size in the past decade. It added several professional speaker lines as well as digital controls that help customers remotely manage and control audio systems.
Shah has helped steer the company into markets abroad, including China and India.
Half of the company’s estimated $150 million in yearly revenue comes from sales to resellers that install its audio gear in stadiums, movie theaters, schools, cruise ships and hotels.
The other half comes from sales to musicians, tour managers and DJs at stores such as Sam Ash and Guitar Center.
The company makes amplifiers and speakers at a 150,000-square-foot factory in Costa Mesa. Other products are made by contractors in Asia. QSC designs products here and also has a research and development office in Colorado.
It has some 300 workers in the county.
The company’s biggest challenge, according to Shah, is finding money to spur growth.
“Most of my focus has been on how I can help the company be more profitable so we can fund our growth,” he said.
For only working at QSC for a year, Shah’s made some big changes.
He undertook an initiative that looked at each level of the company’s operations to see where it could save money to reinvest in the business.
“We are looking at every, single angle our operations—from procurement, planning, manufacturing, logistics and quality—and identifying what we can do so our product costs are less,” he said.
He also renegotiated with suppliers to lower prices and revamped “the total cost picture,” Shah said.
The ultimate goal is to maintain the company’s double-digit growth rate, he said.
“That was the biggest push,” Shah said. “As a CFO, my goal is to make sure R&D gets their resources, but we want to do it in a smart way, by not cutting headcount.”
Shah is a native of India who came here a dozen years ago for school.
“I had just enough money to pay for the first semester’s tuition, but I didn’t know what I would do after that,” he said.
He earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and two master’s degrees in operations and financial management.
After school, Shah spent six years at Connecticut’s United Technologies Corp.
He lives in Irvine with his wife and one-year-old daughter.
