Nuheara to sponsor Perth Wildcats

NBL club Perth Wildcats has partnered with wearable hearing tech company Nuheara, which today announced a record $6.9 million in first-half sales.

Based in Perth, Nuheara develops ‘smart earbuds’ and personal hearing devices, and recently secured a significant manufacturing and supply agreement with American multinational HP.

It has now scored its first ever sports-related partnership, with Nuheara signage to be displayed on the sidelines of Wildcats home court RAC Arena throughout the 2020-21 NBL season.

The Wildcats’ next home game is scheduled for this Sunday, against South East Melbourne Phoenix.

Chief executive Troy Georgiu said the sponsorship was an exciting development.

“Nuheara are an incredible West Australian success story and already a global leader which speaks volumes to the calibre of people they have working within their organisation,” he said.

“We’re very excited to have Nuheara join the Perth Wildcats family and together build on the mutually beneficial opportunities that our partnership represents.

"This important partnership will extend well beyond the impactful Nuheara signage along the sideline of the Wildcats home court.”

Nuheara chief executive Justin Miller said the Wildcats was a world-leading sports franchise.

“As a global leader in the hearables space, Nuheara shares similar standards of excellence with the Wildcats and we are delighted to announce this important partnership between two leading brands,” he said.

The partnership was announced the same day Nuheara disclosed a record first-half for the company, having achieved $6.9 million in net sales – surging 403 per cent on the same time last year.

Nuheara said it had also cleared coronavirus-related backorders for its IQbuds² MAX product and moved to ship-on-order status.

The business announced a $3.7 million Scope of Works agreement with HP in December last year, which involved the supply of multiple HP-branded products over a three-year period.

The first of those products was the HP Elite Wireless Earbuds, which HP launched earlier this month.

"With manufacturing now in full swing and backorder status removed, our subsequent ability to a ship on order should see further strengthening in our DTC [direct to consumer] sales," Mr Miller said.

"Importantly, ship on order status will allow us to implement sales expansion with our traditional global retail partners.

"Add the expected third quarter HP product shipments into the mix and we are in for an exciting second half of the financial year."

Nuheara shares closed up 6.5 per cent to trade at 4.9 cents.