ROTHWELL AUDIO COMPANY PROFILE


disaster. Which is why the news from Bolton’s Rothwell Audio that it has greatly expanded production and is moving increasingly into retail is surely good news for those who believe the UK badly needs more manufacturers in the MI sector. It’s even better news, one imagines, for


those retailers that have decided that now is the time to start selling this range of acclaimed FX pedals, as there is a definite buzz about Rothwell, with a noticeable increase in online chatroom interest and a continuing high profile in the consumer MI media. Andrew Rothwell, the former aviation


electronics engineer who is the brainchild behind Rothwell Audio, says his expansion into selling via retailers has been particularly successful since MI Pro last spoke with him, just over a year ago.


33 miPRO JANUARY 2011


Spreading your wings T


he evolution from bespoke, to boutique, to mass production entails a series of tricky steps, any of which can lead to


“We’re selling through a lot more retailers


now, mostly because Tom Harrison from 440 Distribution is now representing us,” he says. Appointing a distributor in your own country is a decision many small makers agonise over. The loss of margin on retail sales alone can be bad enough, but add in a distributor’s cut too and the mix becomes far too rich for some. “It was a commercial decision I had to


Andrew Rothwell has expanded the business significantly over the past 12 months


make,” Rothwell explains. “Do I go through a distributor in the UK and introduce another middle man, cutting your profit margin as thin as you can go? But Tom’s very good, he’s got our products into a lot more shops and I’m still supplying directly the dealer base I had before, so there’s a little bit more profit in those sales. “But getting more stuff out there means the


brand’s getting better known and there’s also the factor that the higher turnover makes for slightly more efficient production – so that helps.” That said, 440 specialises in a territory from the Midlands northwards in addition to Northern Ireland, so any retailer in the South


Gary Cooper talks to Andrew Rothwell about the pain and the pleasure involved in making the journey from bijou to big time. And it would appear a slow, cautious route is best, according to the FX pedal specialist…


thinking now might be the time to add Rothwell to his arsenal, should contact Rothwell direct. Another encouraging sign is that Rothwell’s


export business is also expanding. “We’re doing quite a lot overseas, but most of our overseas customers (while they call themselves distributors) are really local retailers and don’t sell to other retailers. Now, I think we’re about ready to start looking for some bigger players for export markets.”


YOUTUBE SENSATION Asked if he could put a figure on the increased volumes, Rothwell is happily candid. “It’s certainly doubled in the last 12 months – possibly a bit more,” he reports. “In some ways, scaling-up production is easy. Once the product has been designed, it’s just as easy to pick up the phone and order 1,000 circuit boards as it is to order 100, but if you’re ordering ten times as many you’ll get a much better price – as you do for just about


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