NATAL INTERVIEW
manufacturers who own their own tooling and said that’s the way I’d like to go and that’s what we’ve done. Other than the hoops– and we have plans to invest in those too – nothing on the kits is generic.”
Nonetheless, Natal is launching its kits
into the toughest MI market most in the industry can recall. Glover is only too aware of this, recounting reports of lower footfalls, some shops suffering appalling turnover and a general feeling of malaise which is not, he says, reflected quite as queasily elsewhere in the world. Which prompts the question, how can British retailers make Natal kits must-have products for their customers? “I’ve always said, going right back to my
days in retail, that there is nothing better or worse about the top kits. At a certain price, all the top kits are on a par – the difference is the look, the quality of engineering and the components – whether they appeal to the potential buyer. We have unique features but so do the other top makers.” One thing that is unusual about the
new Natal range, however, is that though there are four price bands for the kits, they share the same newly designed and engineered hardware, Glover explains. “The difference is that each kit uses the
same components across the four ranges: Ash, Birch, Maple and Bubinga. With most brands, cheaper hardware is used on the lower priced models. But with Natal, the Ash kit for example, which will be probably half the price of the Bubinga, will only be cheaper because the wood is cheaper – the quality of the product will be identical.” More than any other MI product
group, percussion lines rely heavily on the power of endorsement to draw customers’ attention. What has Natal done to attract the essential top players to the brand? “The problem we’ve got – and it’s a nice problem to have – is that we’ve got lots of people talking to Paul Marshall about endorsements. We’ve taken on a few, but some of the bigger names want specific products and there are two issues there. We haven’t got a huge amount of spare product available. If you have an artist in the States, it’s a huge commitment of products. They demand absolutely massive amounts of gear and then there’s the second element: they start to want specific products to their own design. We had one, who wasn’t a massive name, who wanted all sorts of individual products that wouldn’t sell. We could have made it for him, but if what he wanted wouldn’t sell, what’s the point?”
www.mi-pro.co.uk
On a personal note, how has Glover
found the other side of the business, following a long career in retail? “I love it, but it’s completely different.
What struck me initially was the different pace of things. Retail is very immediate and you need to deal with things straight away. Manufacturing seemed at the start to be a lot slower, but what I tried to do was grab the speed we used to have in retail and apply that to manufacturing.” As well as speed, one particular thing that
Glover and his team have their eye on is the vexed issue of discounting, he says. “We’re very mindful of that potential
“
I would say the Natal brand is the only new British percussion company that we will see in the next 50 years
problem. Jason Roper, our key accounts manager, deals with that every day. Every time he goes into a store, that’s the message he hears – and if you can provide a product that will maintain its margin then retailers will benefit. “I would say the Natal brand is the only
new British percussion company that we will see in the next 50 years. I don’t think anyone will again invest in the tooling and the design and the rebirth of a brand this way. Add to that the quality of the product – it really is very good and it’s fresh - and there’s a great margin to be made on it, too. From the retailer’s point
The Natal team with Kanye West/John Legend sticksman Swiss Chris. NB: No relation to Swiss Tony
of view, when a guy comes in the store and he’s seen brands A, B and C for ten years or more, suddenly here’s something genuinely different available - and, for that retailer, the margin he needs is there. Retailers need to make money and they will with this product. “There’s another important aspect,
too, and I can say that having spent so much time as a retailer. It’s so frustrating when you get a product that you can make some money on but which, if you need help, it’s just not there. That has happened time and again. Anyone can sell you the gear but it’s the backup that counts and is so important to a retailer. If something goes wrong – and inevitably, with something that you hit, things can go wrong – if you can react very quickly, it actually makes the retailer look superb in the eyes of his customer. “If a retailer sells products that frequently go wrong and have no product support, he will lose market share to the retailer who sells a product that rarely goes wrong and, if it does, has superb product backup – and that’s what we are making sure we do with Natal. There are quite a lot of even bigger drum companies that have no spares infrastructure at all. When I was a retailer there were always the companies who, when you phoned-up with a problem and asked how long it would take to fix, the answer was: “Oh, six to eight weeks, mate”. With Natal, we’re providing a quality product with unique features, you’ll maintain your margin
July 2011 23
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