DISTRIBUTION PROFILE TOMANDWILL – HASLEMERE – DAVID MCCLEAN
Richard Fortus Guns n’ Roses
Tomandwill’s marketing manager David McClean explains how new lines and a strong position in the healthy accessories market has allowed the supplier to prosper when others are struggling…
Year Established: 2008
Number of Employees: There are seven of us, including a few part-times sales staff.
Is business up or down from last year? Business is up, but we have introduced the Clarineo and MMX carbon fibre cases to the UK this year. We’ve also recently added Reunion Blues and Jumbie Jams to our portfolio, so our product range is about double what it was.
How has the economic climate affected business? Everything we do is paid for in US dollars or Chinese RMB, thus we are experiencing squeezed margins, but with the US Fed printing trillions of dollars we might see improvements next year. Otherwise things are not too bad at all – we are predominantly selling accessories, which I think is a more stable market than instrument sales.
pick Music Strings
www.rotosound.com 10 miPRO DECEMBER 2010
What are your best-selling lines and why do you think they perform so well? We sell a ridiculous amount of Tomandwill trumpet bags – single, double and triple. Other popular bags are the ones we supply for saxophones in all sizes and colours and this month, for some reason, we have sold masses of double bass bags. Our strength is that we sell a wide range of bags for all instruments and sales are spread pretty equally. We’re awaiting our third shipment of Jumbie Jams from the States. The last two sold out immediately, but this shipment is huge so we will have good stocks leading up to Christmas.
How does Tomandwill feel the UK market differs from other global markets? We have little experience in markets outside the UK, but will find out soon as we will be making our first appearance at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in 2011.
What is your biggest asset? I think probably Clive Guthrie, who is our sales manager and number one sales person. He used to work for Boosey and Hawkes (for 20- something years, in fact) and knows just about everyone in the business. He is a great friend of all of us here and we don't know where we would be without him.
What distinguishes you from the competition? With the Clarineo we have a completely new instrument in our catalogue. It's not often that retailers have something totally new and it is nice to be able to show them something they will never have seen before.
What would you say is the biggest challenge facing the MI industry today? It has to be the all-important margins. This is a very good reason to stock up on accessories, such as bags, where the margins are always nice and steady.
What are your aims for the next 12 months? There is a lot of promotional work to be done with all our brands, but we especially want to cement the profiles of Reunion Blues and Clarineo in the UK.
CONTACT DETAILS: Address:
Tomandwill.com, PO Box 264, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 9AT Phone: 0845 0945 659 Web:
www.tomandwill.com Email:
sales@tomandwill.com
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WWW.MI-PRO.CO.UK
Photography:
www.mariegc.com
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