JL Audio debuted in the 1970s when two high school buddies from Miramar began building loudspeakers for fun, friends and family. As their components won industry awards and earned national acclaim from audio enthusiasts around the country, JL Audio was born.
Over the next four decades, JL Audio notched up its product line, providing high-performance audio systems for the automotive, marine, home, and recreational vehicle markets.
Today, from its 210,000-sq.-ft facility in the Miramar Park of Commerce, a team of 600 engineers, manufacturing staff, and logistics and distribution personnel make, sell and ship some 1,200 different products to a global and waiting audience.
“We’re a technology company with an industrial backbone that’s right at home in Miramar,” says Robert Oxenhorn, senior vice president of finance with JL Audio.
Like other companies across the city, JL Audio thrives within Miramar’s targeted industries of manufacturing and technology, biotech and life science, aviation, logistics, and education. Their combined successes can be heard across the region.
“Miramar is the perfect home for a growing company like JL Audio,” says City Manager Vernon E. Hargray. “Each company has found a welcoming environment, whether in one of more than a dozen corporate and office parks, or a host of other properties with the helping hand of Miramar elected leaders and city staff.”
Why does Miramar work for JL Audio and hundreds of other employers? Oxenhorn credits three critical attributes. First, proximity to three seaports and three airports facilitate shipping to and from its global supply chain.
Second, a rich cluster of fellow technology and manufacturing companies creates a locally accessible and well-trained workforce. When the company added 50,000 square feet and added a second shift last year, it found an abundant industrial labor pool.
“Having a plethora of manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers nearby creates a very symbiotic relationship,” he says. “Whether using a local supplier base or employing local workers, this is part of our long-standing commitment to manufacturing here in the U.S.”
Finally, the business-friendly government and an accommodating economic development, permitting and manager’s office have helped with every stage of JL Audio’s growth.
”They have a workable regulatory landscape and a city that’s willing to work. Beyond being business-friendly, its people help us do business better and easier,” Oxenhorn says. “Since we started, we’ve focused on hiring locally, producing products in the U.S., and treating our employees like family. The City of Miramar has been very supportive as we’ve grown JL Audio. Then and now, our relationship has resonated with the sound of success.”
Learn more at MiramarFL.gov or call 1-877-WHY-MIRAMAR (949-6472).