MI Pro

Moving house is generally a traumatic experience and most of us, I suspect, have experienced that pain: first of all you need to find the ideal place to move to, then pack everything at the old place and transport it to the new, then unload everything and find space for it all… After that comes the nightmare of finding the right place for all of the stuff, making sure that the essentials are to hand, but also that nothing gets buried.

In our homes, there is invariably the attic or the cupboard under the stairs where all of those indispensable school exercise books, fluffy toys and balls of string can be ‘stored’ in the unlikely event that they will be needed at some time in the future, only to be uncovered and declared indispensable in time for the next move. In business, we cannot allow ourselves such luxury.

To begin with, if there is something unnecessary in the first place, questions need to be asked, and ruthless decisions made. Further to that, a move, especially a warehouse, gives the company the chance to plan and exploit new systems and methods that improve efficiency, productivity and thus profit.

Also, unlike the domestic house move when decisions can be made and then abandoned, and mistakes ironed out all without too much risk of heavy loss, when a company upgrades its storage and logistics, any mistake runs the risk of being extremely expensive. So it is, then, that a year down the line after its move from Heston to Guildford, Aria UK is now sure that everything it hoped to gain from its move has proved so to be, and the systems planned are running smoothly and offering those important benefits.

Talking to Aria UK’s Martin Hartwell (pictured above – left, with general manager, Gareth Townsend and office sales manager, James Deacon), one gets the distinct impression that things have worked out even better than that. Never a man for either hysterics nor histrionics, his smile is that bit broader and his demeanour relaxed and confident these days. It is clear his business has taken the plunge and has resurfaced in sweeter waters.

“There is nothing extraordinary about what we have done, nothing new or unique, there is no rocket science involved, but it has all made a big difference to us and to our customers – we can now respond to pretty much everything the same day now,” he says.

The operation in Heston was somewhat hamstrung by having offices and warehouse under one roof, with a second warehouse down the road. So with the leases on both expiring at the same time, Hartwell and his team were able to give themselves a good three years to plan for the move.

It is very much the unromantic side of the MI business that a company needs to think about one-way traffic and aisle width, running from goods in, via quality control and tech workshops, to the packing and goods out sections, but it is exactly these sorts of issues that can make the difference between survival and acceptance or good profit and a good reputation – and it leaves time and space to concentrate on the romantic side of this business – the products.

Aria is a guitar manufacturer that has been on the scene for 52 years now, and in the UK since 1977, and while never being a bespoke maker, it has a well accepted tradition of being a specialist. From this follows much of the company’s philosophy and subsequent activities.

The story of how Shiro Arai, an accomplished classical guitarist, began importing classical guitars into Japan in 1954 (establishing Arai & Company Incorporated in 1956) and in 1963, following an abortive trip to the US with sub-standard acoustic guitars, began manufacturing electric guitars is well told, and the development of the Aria Pro II series in 1975 – a guitar that played such a big part in the new rock genres that developed through the late 70s and early 80s – is even more widely known. All of this and everything the company has done since has been a confirmation of Arai’s – and Aria’s – written aim to “achieve a higher level of excellence, quality and value for musicians”.

Such blandishments tend to be cheap currency, but Aria UK has every right to claim such high ground, not only through its products, but through its route to the end user. It stands as a pretty unique element in the Aria family as the only joint venture the Japanese mother company has in the world, which gives it a special relationship with its chief supplier, but also makes it an ideal conduit for the feedback from the player and the dealer to Japan’s R&D.

This means that the UK is in the lucky position of having the Aria guitars everybody wants (including the brand's latest endorser – the Kaiser Chiefs, pictured above, right), all the way down the chain – and that chain, established and developed over 31 years, is one that stands well with the vast majority of UK retailers, whether carrying Aria or not.

“We are not a boutique brand, but we are specialists in what we do,” points out Hartwell. “As such, we feel the need to have MI specialists selling our products. And not only Aria. Third party brands such as Seymour Duncan demand experts to sell them, so working with independents is important, yes, but working with experts is our policy. We simply don’t sell through general retail chains or supermarkets or catalogues.” Which is warming for the average MI Pro reader – and more so when one considers that Aria does not sell into Sound Control, either. Although Hartwell is quick to qualify that. “I think it’s a bit of a non-issue to make anything of that. Sound Control stocks a handful of guitar ranges according to their remit, and Aria sells in stores in towns where there is a Sound Control. It’s not that I wouldn’t sell there, it’s simply not a question.”

The fact is, Aria functions on a level of partnership and loyalty at all levels, and the network of dealers in the UK has been forged over 31 years. If the supplier establishes a relationship, it doesn’t see the need to move elsewhere. “You see the same thing at international distributor meetings,” adds Hartwell. “Of the 60 or so companies there, most have been there for many years. Shiro Arai carries this idea of relationships to his distributors, and we carry that down to our dealers. It’s the same with the factories that Aria uses, as well.”

With relationships, of course, come responsibilities. For Aria UK, is that simply a case of keeping good margins, or does it go further than that? “Margins, yes, of course,” he says. “But it is often a case of being flexible and I think, most importantly, having empathy with the dealer. Gareth Townsend, James Deacon and I all have a background in retail, we know the problems faced. On top of that, the product is good, the brand is good and we can tap into a global organisation, while maintaining the sort of manageable size that can react quickly to the dealer’s needs.”

While being Aria’s only joint venture operation in the world, Aria UK is still an autonomous operation that stands or falls on its own ability to make profit and this gives it the freedom to select complementary brands to distribute.

Rather than going down the route of having a finger in every pie, the company maintains that specialist label and concentrates on products that fit snugly into the guitar sector. Brands such as Bespecco, the Italian accessory brand that Aria took on in the UK two years ago, gives the company a wider outreach to its stores, specifically through cables, pedals and stands – in fact Bespeco invented the (now much copied) Crocodile keyboard stand. At this year’s Musikmesse, Bespeco announced the launch of Bespeco Asia, which Aria UK is hoping will take the brand to new levels.

“Bespeco is a company that deserves a bit more attention,” says Hartwell. “It is an Italian design company, which speaks volumes on its own, but its innovation in the accessory market is second to none. With the launch of Bespeco Asia, all of this innovation has now trickled down to a price point that everyone can benefit from. We are quite excited about this development. We want to continue offering the Italian made products, but the new, Asian-made products open up all sorts of avenues for us.”
The first products from the new venture take the ‘Silos’ brand and include cables and adaptors, with the cables adopting a colour coding for the different types, all in packaging that hangs on a slat wall and – as Hartwell says – “makes the job of selling accessories a lot easier”.

At the other end of the guitar-associated spectrum comes Seymour Duncan – not your average over-the-counter accessory, but one that the American pickup manufacturer and Aria has made work extremely well over the 17 years the companies have been partners here in the UK. “It’s a difficult thing to say without having any figures to back it up, but I don’t think many people would argue that this is regarded the number one replacement pickup, certainly in Britain,” he says.

Perhaps surprisingly, the vast majority of the business Aria UK completes with Seymour Duncan is not through OEM business, but over the counter and for those dealers with an on-site guitar technician (and let’s face it, if you’re selling guitars, you should have one) the degree of support offered dealers is impressive.

“It is unavoidable that larger instrument sales will attract customers according to price and dealers, too, will often focus on price, but a product line such as Seymour Duncan comes in below that radar,” points out Hartwell. “It’s never a case of how much does it cost, but a question of what is a good solution. We can make significant discounts to the dealer, but beyond that Seymour Duncan has run a good deal of seminars and has extensive details on its website on how each of the different guitar components effects the sound of the guitar – what Seymour calls ‘the tone quest’.

“The idea is that all guitarists reach a level where they know what tone they want and it becomes a simple conversation with a dealer to establish this and find a suitable Seymour Duncan replacement pickup.”

It is a procedure that has worked well. Seymour Duncan (the man) runs a ‘grand tour’ in the UK every four years or so, but the content of these seminars is available from Aria UK at all times, and it has contributed to making Seymour Duncan (the brand) a significant income for Aria from dealers. “The level of guitar manufacture in the UK is comparatively small scale,” explains Hartwell of the OEM business, “and we supply them all in some form or other, but generally they fall short of Seymour Duncan’s requirements for full OEM status. We manage very well with all of the business here.”

The latest venture from Seymour Duncan is its range of stomp boxes, which given the manufacturer’s experience in signal transference, are pretty impressive and at the same time just a bit leftfield. It started with the SFX-01 pickup booster, which adds up to 25dB to a passive guitar’s signal and fills up a single coil sound to full bloodied humbucking sound. Simple, but effective, the booster pedal prompted a further rash of pedals from the American company, including the Shape Shifter tap tremolo box and the SFX 07 Twin Tube Mayhem, a preamp for metal players with sub-miniature, US-made Phillips-Sylvania 62051 pentode tubes, which received the Guitar best effect award for 2007.

Sitting rather conspicuously among all the complementary ranges is the Canadian Garrison brand of acoustic guitars – the brainchild of Chris Griffiths and his Active Bracing System, a polymer injected bracing ‘cage’ around which the guitars’ wooden body is built. Now in its seventh year of trading, Garrison has quickly established and maintained a strong market share, reinforced by the brand’s recent introduction of parlour and grand concert body shapes to the initial dreadnought design.

“This has helped a lot,” admits Hartwell. “One of the constraints of Garrison when we first took the range on was the limitation to a dreadnought body, but the line’s doing well – and now there are models from both Canada and China, the range runs from £159 to the £2,000 limited edition guitars from Canada,”

This does not explain, however, why Aria UK, with its major brand including some fine acoustic guitars across a wide price range, should take on what is essentially a competitor. “I don’t really think this is the case. Garrison is very similar to Aria only in that it is a unique product. The active bracing system is a big innovation, but it creates a sound that is different and so not to everyone’s taste – much like Aria. It comes down to preference, but with Garrison now building mandolins and mandolas now – which Aria also does – the appeal of the brand will grow further.”

Aria UK, much like Martin Hartwell and Gareth Townsend, is a very stable, hard-working company. It doesn’t get into a flap about very much, it understands its market and its customers and it has carved out, through Aria and through its third party brands, some original routes to market inspired by the original products it supplies.

The above, hopefully, goes a long way to show that the trauma of upheaval has been handled in the same level headed way and the company remains, as far as the outside observer is concerned, much the same. “To a greater extent, nothing has really changed at all,” shrugs Hartwell.

“The move prompted the retirement of our credit controller, Sue Teague, but this would have happened anyway. Her replacement is Catherine Masterman, but pretty much everybody else has come with us. James Deacon on telesales, me, Gareth, and Lee Burke – who has been in the workshop for 21 years – all of the familiar faces the dealers know are still here.” Which means that the relationships built up over the past 30 years remain as well. Statements of philosophy come cheap, but the proof of them can only be established over years.

ARIA: 01483 238720