FIRST LINE COMPANY PROFILE
First in line
Where does the MI retailer turn when the larger brands start squeezing margins? Most of them are discovering that quality, niche brands are quite often the way to keep profits high in these financially tough times that we find ourselves in. Gary Cooper has unearthed a swathe of them all under one roof at First Line Distribution…
as ‘encouragement’ for retailers to look long and hard at their stock. Increasingly, both they and distributors tell MI Pro they are turning away from trying to compete with brands that attract heavy discounts, because they realise discounting is a battle they cannot win. This doesn’t automatically mean the big brands are vanishing from smaller shops – they’re still
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needed and always will be. However, it does mean that canny retailers are doing what canny retailers always have – making sure that they also offer lines on which they can make a good margin and to which they can steer the right customers. While sometimes this category is composed of what might be described as ‘second tier’ brands, it also includes the prestigious US-sourced lines that First Line Distribution has done so well with. This dovetails nicely with the current mood of the industry, that should be no surprise, as First Line was started by Jay Henson, who had a long background in MI retail before moving into distribution.
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ne small ray of sunshine in the current economic crisis is that it’s provided what you might describe
The company began with Carl Martin
effects pedals, then began to add similarly prestigious US lines like Spector basses, Eden bass amplification, Parker guitars, Diamond amplification and DR Strings. Most recently it has caused a real stir with the long-awaited DBZ guitars – the latest project from Dean founder, Dean Zelinsky. But wait a minute – DR strings? Surely the axiom is that getting new string lines established in the UK is next to impossible, as most retailers can’t be
The company began with Carl Martin effects pedals, then began to add similarly prestigious US lines like Spector basses and DR strings.
persuaded to stock anything but the big three or four brands? According to Jay Henson, this is not the case with DR. “DR has been doing incredibly well for us and the further we go, the more we are starting to realise how much potential there is and it’s all down to the quality of the product. As a retailer, having someone come in with another strong brand is a bit of a nightmare, I realise, having been there. You want to be able to offer your customers more choice, but trying to put aside that extra bit of space, when you know your Ernie Balls and D’Addarios will sell, is a bit difficult. But the thing with DR strings is that it’s not just a marketing
exercise – it’s not just another ‘me too’ product with different marketing and a new set of endorsers. It’s a genuinely original product made using different construction methods and it has a huge following. People who know them don’t just go back and ask for ‘another set of those strings with the pink packets.’ Once they’ve tried them, DR is all they’ll buy. They won’t even tell me how they make their latest strings, DDT – Drop Down Tuning. They’re absolutely incredible strings across the range and are starting to build a serious following.” A following is what Dean Zelinsky has,
too. It has been over two years since word went out that he had parted company with the Dean brand he founded and was teaming-up with Diamond Amplification to launch an entirely new range of guitars. It has taken Zelinsky time to get DBZ into full production, but the delay seems to have heightened the buzz surrounding the newcomers, which have now been received to great acclaim in the USA. “It has taken a while to get up to full
production but we now have containers coming every month,” Henson says. “The reason it took so long was because Dean Zelinsky knew it had it be right.” What is particularly interesting about DBZ isn’t just that the guitars look so good (check out the DBZ website), but that they
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