SELF DISTRIBUTION FEATURE
Do it yourself T
he model of ‘how MI works’ is clearly changing. As major international brands increasingly
choose to self-distribute, smaller manufacturers find they are unable to offer sufficient margin for proper distribution and are happy to take orders direct from retailers. One imminent arrival that has decided to go direct from the outset is Grover Jackson's GJ2 venture, being run by sometime UK retailer, later senior sales director at Fender USA, Jon Gold. Gold and Jackson have decided to give the line exclusively to
mi-pro.co.uk
GuitarGuitar – a decision which may cause raised eyebrows, but which Gold says wasn’t hard to reach. “The reason why we’ve decided to do it is not because we don't like distributors. If Grover and I were creating a Korean-made brand selling a thousand units a month, we would have to have a distributor, but it only works when they can see they will get a return on it. If all you’re talking about is dozens of guitars a month, even expensive ones, there’s just not enough money in it for them to make that kind of investment. “It is getting harder and harder for people to maintain healthy margins and,
Despite the grumbling last year that followed distributor Westside opening a showroom for its products in London's Denmark Street, in recent years it has been the retail sector that has been encroaching – if that is the right word – on distribution, rather than vice versa. Gary Cooper takes a look at those companies that have chosen to do things differently…
especially when you get to higher-priced products, like Suhr, 65 Amps and ourselves, a distributor adds to the price but they can’t add enough value to the product to justify the retail price. I don’t mean that as a criticism, it’s just a fact of life. If a distributor is going to spend £20,000 promoting a product they need to know there is enough volume to get that investment back. It’s a purely economic situation. “Of course, you have to choose your
retailer well and hope they will do the marketing that’s needed. One of the reasons we went with GuitarGuitar was
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