Aqualung Swap UK Distributor January 15, 2010 by lukesheppard

For many years now AquaLung , made up of brands such as Seaquest, US Divers, Technisub , and Deep See have been distributed in the UK via AquaLung UK, a jointly owned company made up of the AquaLung Corporation and Midland Diving Equipment (MDE). However a few years ago AquaLung Corp. purchased Apeks Marine Equipment home of the TX, ATX ,XTX and now Flight regulators. Most people saw this as an acquisition to improve their cold water regulator abilities, and as a by product it also gave them a UK base.

From April 2010 Apeks will be the distributor for the AquaLung brands. It does make sense, for instance, now when an AquaLung regulator is sold AquaLung Corp. get all the profit rather than the half that they do under the current arrangement. However it would appear MDE have been quite cute on this, their contract was due to expire at the end of 2010 but they bought it forward to April 2010 to concentrate this season on distributing a new brand.

We suspect AquaLung/Apeks may have been caught on the hop thinking they had time to get things straight for the 2011 season but now have to deal with the 2010 season too. To the consumer there is unlikely to be any noticeable difference and no warranties are affected so you are still covered.  From the trade’s perspective, these transitions are rarely smooth and normally take at least 12 months to get back to normal. The current team at AquaLung UK soon to be rebranded MDE make a fresh start distributing Beuchat diving products. It is a brave move, many distributors have had the Beuchat distribution rights in the UK, none have succeeded with it. They retain the current distribution of Barbolight dive torches and Faber dive cylinders. Good luck to all those involved!