About Us

Corporate

Spectra and their Asia subsidiary, IMA-Hong Kong, LTD., have been an integral part of the consumer electronics business for the past 40 years.

Spectra has supplied products to every major retailer in the United States, as well as conducting business on every continent in the world.  In addition to retailers, Spectra has been successful in the premium, direct mail and online channels of the industry.

The companies are owned privately by Patricia Schoenberg who, through her lifelong career in the consumer electronics business, has molded Spectra and IMA into companies who design, develop, manufacture and distribute products on a worldwide basis.

With so much experience Ms. Schoenberg, who has homes both in Chicago and Hong Kong, has developed strong relationships with the premier factories in Asia.  Throughout her career, Ms. Schoenberg has personally worked with factories throughout Asia to insure both competitive costing and the quality needed to make products salable and successful throughout the world.

Knowing what is needed to do business in today’s market, the company has design and engineering teams both in Chicago and Hong Kong.  Spectra also has their own QC team in China who oversee and insure the quality and reliability of every product the company produces and to confirm that each product conforms to all safety and regulation requirements worldwide.  In addition, Spectra has their own customer service department in Chicago to personally handle all inquires or problems including from end users of their products.  Unlike a lot of companies today, nothing is “outsourced” at Spectra.  It is all done in house, under the direction of the Spectra management team.

Additionally, in today’s market it is not enough to just know how to manufacture products.  One must also be aware of regularly changing government regulations, factory compliance requirements, and other restrictions based on the country the merchandise is produced for.  Spectra’s organization has extensive experience with not only the USA requirements of UL and ETL, CPSIA, CEC but also CE, ROHS and many other standards needed to do business around the world today.  As the world shrinks businesswise, companies must have worldwide expertise in the regulation arena to function globally. Spectra is one of the companies that have that expertise.

Spectra is also a financially strong company who invests substantial amounts of money into product development, staff, and support to perform functions many other companies cannot.  Whether funding is needed for expensive tooling to start projects, or to solve problems, Spectra is one of the strongest financial partners in the industry today.  Both retailers and manufacturers around the world know this, enabling Spectra to do business in many instances where many other companies cannot.

Spectra solely owns their custom-built Chicago-based, USA operation, which includes their corporate offices as well as a 70,000 sq. ft. warehouse facility.  Not only does this guarantee fast and accurate shipping to retailers, it has also allowed Spectra to be at the forefront of drop shipping for internet, catalog and direct mail businesses.  Each year Spectra ships more than 100,000 pieces of product to individual consumers for retailers such as Target, Toys R Us, Kohl’s, JC Penney, Sears, Kmart, and many others.

Since 1998 Spectra has had an excellent working relationship with the owners of the JENSEN brand and today has a long term agreement in place to market consumer electronic products under the JENSEN brand worldwide.  JENSEN has a 75 year storied name in high quality sound which Spectra has parlayed into a strategy of popularly priced, right for the new millennium, line of products currently sold by retailers throughout the USA.

As new technology drives the electronics business in recent years, Spectra continues to keep step with the leaders. Spectra was one of the earliest licensees by Apple for iPod docking music systems and became one of the first to gain ‘Works with iPhone’ approval.

In 2002, Spectra formed a strategic alliance with Marino Andriani, LLC. (MALLC).  MALLC’s President, Marino Andriani, an industry icon since his days as President of Emerson Radio, started the company with an eye toward marketing consumer electronics to female consumers.  Through a licensing agreement with Sanrio for the HELLO KITTY brand, MALLC and Spectra produce a wide variety of products across several categories including consumer electronics, computer accessories and small appliances.  Today, MALLC is not only Sanrio’s biggest supplier of licensed merchandise worldwide, but also the industry leader of licensed consumer electronic products in the world today.

In addition to Hello Kitty, MALLC has also marketed many other famous brands including AMERICAN IDOL, STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE, TWEETY and SYLVESTER.  In 2011, MALLC and Spectra will be introducing a high-styled lineup of PAUL FRANK products featuring the world famous and popular JULIUS THE MONKEY.

Additionally, MALLC and Spectra have worked with retailers such as Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic and others to produce private label products specifically for these retailers.  Most retailers know and appreciate Spectra’s “start-to-finish” capabilities and look to Spectra for their expertise when thinking about particular products to be merchandised only in their stores.

For more information on MALLC click here.

Spectra has formed a synergistic alliance with Brands Unlimited International which includes distribution of their portfolio of licensed consumer electronic, home décor, outdoor lifestyle and computer accessory products under the M&M’s/Mars, Discovery Expedition and Kyle Busch licenses. 

For more information on Brands Unlimited click here.

IMA-HONG KONG, LTD. is the Far East headquarters, responsible for sourcing, product development, production QA/QC and direct sales to customers outside North America. When IMA in the U.S.A. was founded in 1969, the company pioneered direct import programs for U.S.A. based purchases of consumer electronics products from Japan. It was evident at that time that Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea would soon emerge as competitive manufacturers of consumer electronics, and that an additional Far East base outside of Japan would be essential to the future development of the company. In 1975 IMA-Hong Kong, Ltd. was established as the cornerstone of what has become a far more extensive operation. IMA-Hong Kong, Ltd. has an outstanding commercial and financial reputation throughout Asia. IMA provides engineering support and full time supervision of production being contracted for Spectra and also for distribution in various overseas markets, buying services for other companies, and quality control inspections of all shipments. Extended operations include IMA China, IMA International Taiwan and a liaison office in Korea.

IMA has developed comprehensive specification levels and quality control procedures for all relevant product categories, including packaging and marking. Every shipment made is independently inspected by IMA’s own quality control staff usually at an AQL level of 1.5% major, 4% minor. The continued pursuit of above average quality has effectively reduced customer return rates below the industry average with a consequential reduction in after sales service costs.