MI Pro

Last year’s MI Pro Retail Survey saw a two-way battle in the Best Supplier category between Sutherland Trading and Yamaha-Kemble (now Yamaha Music UK). This year saw a repeat of that battle, only Sutherland came out on top.
This is quite a coup for the small, Caerphilly-based distributor. It has no ‘top of the league’ brands and is a company that little is said about, yet dealers clearly appreciate the work it does.

“Well Hohner harmonicas are a definite best seller and we do have some other solid brands, but I see what you are saying,” retorts Alan Townsend, Sutherland’s marketing manager and product manager for the drum, keyboard and traditional instrument portfolio. “Having a relationship with your dealers is very important.”

“I think the most important thing is that we try to make sure that our dealers can make a profit from our brands,” interjects Keith Twine, the company’s general manager and overseer of all things guitar. “The ‘best sellers’ that you mention tend to be the major lines of the biggest and most aggressive music shops; and those most likely to have an aggressive website with the keenest discounts. Bigger brands often mean biggest discounts. We tend not to be strong in those shops. Our dealer base is predominantly the small and medium sized shops in every town in the country, who can be fairly confident that they can sell our goods at a fair price and make a proper profit.”

In other words, it’s not rocket science. Good pricing, giving a good margin – and presumably being friendly. “Absolutely,” says Townsend. “We don’t encourage our reps to be hard-nosed salesmen, but to build relationships – there’s that word again – and try to be helpful.”

As far as the sales structure is concerned, Sutherland is again, as Twine describes it, ‘fairly conventional’. The general catalogue is covered in the field by four employed area sales managers, plus a self-employed sales agent for Scotland and Ireland. “This is the only economical way we can cover that area,” explains Twine.

“Bob Jobson, our sales manager, is also responsible for a small territory so he can keep his finger on the pulse.”

There are four full time tele-salespeople in house, including Steve Proctor, who has been with Sutherland and Hohner since 1974 and subsequently has a wealth of experience and knowledge about harmonicas and accordions. Paul Hemming specialises in drums and works in partnership with the drum specialist. Others make routine out-bound calls selling consumables and accessories like Dean Markley, Nobels, Carbosticks and Onori straps.

So, what of this curse of the 21st century: image? How does a company such as Sutherland establish and maintain an identity? “We don’t try to promote the Sutherland brand to end users at all,” insists Townsend. “That said, it’s important to us that the public is aware of our product brands and the values that those brands have.”

But that’s the marketing man talking. The general manager has different ideas. “We do consciously try to work to a personality profile for the company and test our actions about being useful and helpful and friendly to dealers in helping them to make a profit,” says Twine. “We have a picture in our minds of what we are and this affects the decisions we make about returns or service. For example, we’re not too prissy about when guarantees start and stop. We try to play to our strengths.”

Sutherland as a company fills in any gaps left after the reps, sales team and the management have done all they can by maintaining communication through a regular newsletter, the ‘Sutherland Connection’. This is then backed up through email messages (providing they have everyone’s address) adding that personal touch again quickly, easily and cheaply.

Beyond the dealers’ image of the supplier, there is the more complex issue of juggling various brands’ images, while keeping a coherent thread that ties them to the company. Townsend is not so sure about that. “Each brand has its own values and, therefore, its own image,” he muses.

“Crafter is dependable and good value, Sonor is German engineering and design excellence and so on. Each brand is independent and should remain so. What we have to ensure is that the dealers understand that all the brands that are distributed by Sutherland are likely to be available from stock and are clean in the marketplace so they can make an acceptable margin on them.”

Although the news of Fender’s purchase of the Kaman Music Division is still fresh and the handover arrangements are still in their early stages, Sutherland is being affected by the shift as it supplies the Kaman-owned Genz Benz amplifiers in the UK, as well as the Dean Markley brand of strings, which has very close ties to Kaman.

“It would have been a big loss to lose Dean Markley,” says Keith Twine – surprised at the suggestion. “It makes a significant contribution to our business since we became the sole distributor in 2004. However, I’m pleased to say that Kaman didn’t own Dean Markley, but is simply its sales agent. Sutherland will continue to distribute Dean Markley, but will deal directly with the manufacturer in the future, rather than with Kaman.”

“Fender will be geared up to take over Genz Benz distribution on July 1st. The two companies are a perfect fit, even to the fact that they are both based in Scottsdale, Arizona. I think that this move on Fender’s part may have a profound effect on some distributors, but we look forward to the opportunities that changes of this nature inevitably bring.”

One of the refreshing things about talking to Sutherland’s managers is that while they obviously have a great faith in what they are doing and in their brands, there is also a healthy helping of humility served up, too. There are many in the business who will talk until the cows come home about how great they are and how poor their competitors are, but this never comes across from Twine and Townsend.

They both have decades of experience in the trade (about 80 years combined, truth be known) and have seen through a management buyout in 2001 and kicked on from there.
So what for the coming year? In most respects, the company feels its top spot in the MI Pro survey means that it need not change much, but a wholesaler is never going to be entirely happy simply with what it has. Products are always the next thing on their minds.

“Our two biggest growth products over the last year have been clip-on tuners and ukuleles. One dealer even suggested that we rename ourselves, ‘Tuners ‘R’ Us’”, says Twine. “Ukulele sales are amazing and we’d even sell more if more guitarists knew that any chord played on the top four strings of a guitar also works on a uke,” adds Townsend. “A dealer has asked me to do an evening workshop for his staff and customers to help spread the ‘gospel’ and I’m happy to do that.”

He adds that thousands of ukes are being sold into schools, especially now that there’s new money for instruments to be spent. Teachers are realising that pupils can play a ukulele and sing at the same time – unlike a recorder. “It must be one of the easiest instruments to learn to play properly and the later transition to guitar, if they want to, is painless.”

Further to that, Sutherland has recently taken on the Kala line of ukuleles and in a few months has become the brand’s biggest distributor. “We’d like to be known as the complete ukulele company,” says Townsend – although it is hard to tell if he is being serious. “Oh, absolutely. We sell Kala and Lanikai brands and the complete range of Aquila Nylgut ukulele strings, and there are still more complementary lines to come.”

In the end, then, it’s all quite simple. Good margins, good sales team, friendly demeanour, not pedantic (but still firm), relish a challenge and be diplomatic and you’ll fly to the heights of dealer perceptions. Can it really be that easy?
“I don’t think it is,” admits Twine. “I’m sure that we don’t get it right for much of the time but we try to be a friendly, easy and comfortable company to do business with and we try to give the dealers the products that they need and can make a profit on.” And that is what MI dealers call a good relationship.