INTERVIEWSOAR VALLEY
A time to hunker down, then, and shore up the successes in an effort to maintain market share.
Dream time
Well, no. Ledsam had been thinking about dipping a toe into the rather intimidating world of rock n roll for a while, but when the Arbiter Group went under, brands such as Sabian, Gretsch drums, Latin Percussion were not alone in looking for their place in the UK market – a lot of employees were, too. Among them was Darran Bramley, Arbiter’s drum products manager. “From the moment I joined Soar Valley
we were looking for a cymbal line,” explains Bramley. “We first started looking at the Turkish companies, but felt that there were too many people doing this – there were a lot of brands already on the market. We wanted something a bit different. “We had seen Dream at Frankfurt in
2009, but at the time they had a supplier in the UK. But when we saw them again in 2010 it was clear that they were looking for something a bit different too, so we had a succession of meetings and we really liked them and it seems they liked us.” The immediate attraction to Dream –
once the question of quality had been sated – was the fact that, as a North American company (from Canada to be precise), Dream had a lot of marketing nous and already had endorser and advertising plans in action. Dream cymbals are made at an exclusive factory in Wu Han – where cymbals have been made for centuries – and there is a long and successful relationship there between brand owner and instrument maker.
One of the partners of Dream also
has a non-MI factory out there and all the cymbals are sent there for quality control and shipping. “Often when dealing with
China, there is a degree of hoping for the best each time a container arrives, but Dream doesn’t have this problem,” Bramley assures. “The cymbals are consistently made as we want them here.”
Tech a bow
Almost immediately after Dream had joined the Soar Valley catalogue – or rather the SVM Percussion catalogue, the distribution brand for the rock n roll gear the company handles – the company took a sharp swing towards the left field and introduced the Techtonic electronic drumkits to the market, and then Techtonic hardware and acoustic kits. “We were looking to expand into the
rock n roll drum world for a number of reasons,” says Bramley. “An important one is that we had a good network of dealers, but some were perhaps buying a djembe or two and that was it. We asked them what they wanted and the response was that they wanted a high-quality, but price-sensitive range of hardware – not entry-level, but one step up from that. We sourced a good line and from there evolved into drumkits.” All of this, remember, as the economy
was struggling. So what’s the secret? When the going gets tough, every man and his roadie will tell you, it’s the established brands that survive. Try saying that to the Soar Valley team.
Dream cymbals are made at an exclusive factory in China
“I think if we had introduced
Dream in a buoyant market, it would have been a lot more difficult,” Bramley muses. “As the market is at the moment, everyone is questioning what they are spending. Dream is a quality product, but at a really sensible price and readily available. Had things been really great and people had all their money, I really believe it
would have been much harder. This is predominantly a market share business. There is rarely anything new on the market, just alternatives – and I think we have some serious alternatives here.”
Hard rock
“Of course, what we have done is create some interest in us,” adds Ledsam. “We have a lot more dealers, but it’s a bit like putting our heads over the parapets. More people can see us, but you are more exposed. Some of the big boys have got us in their sights now. Rock n roll is a harder world to function in, but it is potentially a much richer world. “I put a lot of pressure on myself and
the company with the electronic drums, but that seems to be paying off. It looks as though we are eating into some people’s market share. And I have to say, Dream has been simply amazing. In the first year of handling the brand, we went from nothing to having 25 stores – and that’s 25 stores that really get it, that are really behind the product. “We want to expand further as well,”
The percussion market is a key area for Soar Valley
36 July 2011
adds Bramley. “Initially we are looking to get higher-level kits and hardware, then add to the percussion instruments and accessories – but everything moving up towards the higher end. You can’t do it all at once, of course and at the moment our focus is on Dream and consolidating what we have now. It’s an evolutionary thing – we’ll take each step logically, as it arises.” Logically? Logic would have said ‘don’t
do this’ back in 2008. Dreams, however, function in a lateral world, one that Soar Valley seems quite comfortable in.
ww.mi-pro.co.uk
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