ROSETTI COVER FEATURE
distribute Vandoren reeds for us and we will sub-distribute Schaller for them. There may be other things in the future, which we’re still talking about.” The arrangement seems like a very neat fit,
leveraging Stentor’s strength in brass, woodwind and eduction and Rosetti’s strength in the guitar market. “It means we get a much better personal coverage for the retailers of some main brands. The world’s not full of people I’d like to do this with but in the case of Stentor, their credentials are impeccable.” Rosetti has a lot going for it, Ellis and Warner
insist. Not only does it have some excellent brands, backed by a wealth of experience and knowledge, but the years of working with a demanding product line like Gibson have left it with a QC and service resource of impressive strength. The company also prides itself on being dealer friendly, Ellis says, pointing to the Rosetti website which, in addition to featuring all the company’s products, as you would expect, is also a resource of dealer backup material for marketing and information. “Let me give you an example of what I mean about being dealer friendly,” Ellis says. “Unlike a lot of our competitors, all our back orders are shipped carriage- free. Also all orders over just £25 are carriage-free and if anybody wants a Saturday delivery, we’ll do that without charge, too. There are lots of little things in the background that make us good to do business with too - like the quality control we do on every single guitar that leaves the premises. “We had a very successful open day
last year, where we were able to show retailers what we do here and we’re having another one this year on July 17th and 18th and we’re hoping we’ll be able to entertain even more retailers this year.” So where does Rosetti go from here? “Well, we’re still pretty hungry,” Ellis
says. “There are one or two things in the wind that I can’t talk about just now, but I can say that we’re looking to do more on the manufacturing side of Adam Black within the UK. But beyond that, we’re looking to find ways of using the Internet more – not to cut-out the retailers, but to include the retailers – and there are a few ideas we’re exploring now.” Looking at
Rosetti, the eye is drawn to its strength in guitars – but less obviously, brass and woodwind plays a major role in the company’s sales. With Vandoren it has a market leading brand
WWW.MI-PRO.CO.UK
Adam Black (right) is just a small part of Rosetti’s recent success
and its own Rosetti instruments are strong sellers, too. What has been happening in that market? “In the past the Government has been putting a lot of money onto the educational side of the industry but unfortunately the bottomless pit seems to have found a bottom now, so there is a
constraint on some educational sales. But nonetheless, where children want to learn, it is still possible to do it and a lot of parents are keen to encourage it, by paying for private tuition. We’re in a very good position with Chinese instruments now, as a lot of the teething troubles have been overcome. You can buy a very, very reasonably priced good clarinet, trumpet, flute, or saxophone for not huge amounts of money. And, whereas in the past you’d say, ‘Chinese trumpet’ and people would fall over laughing, nowadays people are taking these things very seriously. If you’re going to give a child an instrument that even a professional couldn’t play, you’re not giving then a sporting chance. But that isn’t the case these days – take a good Chinese instrument, put a quality Vandoren mouthpiece on it and you’re in with a very good chance. “That said, I would like to see a lot more interest being taken by Government and educational authorities in music as a subject. Music has an awful lot going for it, apart from being, in my opinion, the major art form, it’s also of huge educational benefit. Everybody needs music and I would like to see it taken
very much more seriously. “Conventional instruments still have a
tremendous amount going for them, you know. I’m thoroughly glad, for example, that we’re in the music business rather than the computer business. If I’ve got a trumpet sitting on my warehouse shelf for five years – which is most unlikely, I must add! – five year’s later, I still have a trumpet to sell. But if I’d bought a computer to resell, after five years, heaven help me.” A question that we often ask distributors –
particularly those who have worked on the other side of a shop counter as well – is whether they have any advice they feel they can offer shops in these difficult times. Ellis had a particularly interesting response. “We’re blessed these days with a lot of pretty
canny retailers and they’re pretty canny because they’ve had to be in a recession, so I wouldn’t presume to tell my retail customers how to run their shops. When I was retailing, it was in a very different age. Nowadays they have to confront all sorts of laws and compliances, they have to cope with the internet – so things have changed a lot since I was retailing. “In terms of business generally, though, I’d
say that you have to look after your customer, pay your bills and work with your supplier, because whether it’s us or one of our competitors, the music business has gone through a particularly hard time and we want to work with them to satisfy the end-consumer. And that end-consmer has a finite amount of money in his pocket today, so we have to give him good products that are good value for money, backed by good service. But would I sit here and pontificate with advice to retailers? No, I wouldn’t. They know what to do, they know how to do it and in most cases they are bloody good at it. They don’t need advice from me. What they need from me is service and good back-up.” Is there anything else to watch to help a business survive in these hard times? “Yes, make a profit,” Barry Warner adds, with a laugh. ROSETTI: 01376 550033
miPRO MARCH 2011 23
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