MI Pro

Though often associated with the late 90s DJ boom, Lamba is actually one of the music industry’s older suppliers – and an excellent example of the motto ‘adapt or die’. Started by chairman Frank Irish’s father, Charlie, in 1952, Lamba has a reputation for watching the market closely and keeping ahead of the curve, which is why the Lamba of today, though it retains an uncommonly high number of people who have been with the company for many years, is quite a different business – in product terms – than it was the last time MI Pro featured it.

Today’s Lamba, for example, is no longer a distributor of other manufacturers’ products, which may seem surprising, given its long relationship with some of the major brands it has distributed – names that have included such US stalwarts as Stanton, Cerwin-Vega, KRK, Numark, Gemini and also Martin Professional lighting. Today Lamba concentrates solely on its own brand, Kam, which it has turned from a DJ line into a versatile range that not only embraces the MI market, but is making increasing inroads into it, both internationally and in the UK and Ireland. 

Responsible for much of the direction that Lamba has taken in recent years is the company’s managing director, Gerry Frost – himself, a Lamba veteran.

“I took over the helm as MD last year, after Chris Osborne retired and I’m just about to celebrate 20 years at Lamba,” he explains.

“Lamba is very much a family-run business,” he says. “It’s always been based on quite traditional values and ethics and we feel that’s one of the reasons it has been so successful for so long. It’s reflected in how long so many of us at Lamba have been with the company. Denis Phoenix, our sales director, and Emilio Reyes, our financial director, have been an integral part of our backbone for the past 11 years, while Kim Wynne, our export assistant, and Ken Goodyear, our warehouse manager, have been with us for over nine years. We have those sorts of long-standing relationships here and it gives the company a character that we think our customers appreciate when they do business with us.

“Kam has not been perceived as an MI-based company in the past, but with the expansion of our products such as Kamkases, wireless mics, amplifiers and speakers, European sourced Kamstands and, importantly, lasers and LED lighting (incorporating the Parbar range), we’ve become an important supplier to the MI industry. 

“Of course, we have many integral parts of the company, but in the MI market we’ve seen a natural progression and growth and as we speak we are about to launch a product that will have a lot of applications in the MI industry: the new Parbar mkII lighting kit. Any MI, band-based retailer could find a great demand for that product and make a healthy margin.”

It has to be admitted that the mere mention of lighting is enough to have some MI retailers reaching for the mental off-switch, but as is so often the case, technology has outpaced preconceptions and anyone who dismisses this growing opportunity, based on old memories of expensive bulbs, hard-to-configure systems, tottering towers of infrastructure and all the rest of the mystery that was once lighting, would be making a big mistake.

The LED-based systems on the market, typified by Kam’s LED range, dispense with all the complex paraphernalia and replace it with simple, cool-running, LED lighting, which is cheap to buy and easy to run. The Parbar mkII, Gerry Frost says, takes that user-friendliness even further – right into the ‘every band should have some’ market.

PAR FOR THE COURSE
“The Parbar system is based around the industry-standard ‘par’ cans and what we’ve done is taken that standard design, improved it and made it into a complete kit using four LED par cans, with an on-board DMX controller and sound to light function on a stand, with a foot controller and all packed in its own padded carry case. It means that someone playing a gig can have the whole Parbar set up and running within a minute.” This opens up some very interesting sales territory for MI retailers, Lamba feels, as instead of trying to coax customers to open their wallets for yet another guitar or backline amplifier (particularly during a recession where ‘luxury’ spending might feel inappropriate), lighting offers the customer something completely new – and a way to make a significant impact on their performances and prospects as artists. 

In the past, if PA was too daunting for some retailers to consider, lighting might have seemed completely beyond the pale, but with the Parbar, Lamba argues, it isn’t only easy to understand and use, it is very affordable. The complete Parbar mkII kit, when it is launched at the end of May (lighter, easier to set-up and operate and with a higher light output), will sell at an anticipated street price of around £299.

“We feel this will give MI retailers something new and innovative to offer their customers in this tough economic climate,” Frost says. “It has a lot of diverse applications as well – for bands, soloists and the performance industry, of course, but also for installations and the educational market. It’s a product that retailers can make good margins on, too, which is something Lamba has always been very aware of.”

Lamba’s evolution from being a distributor of other people’s brands to servicing just its own – Kam – may not have received an awful lot of attention in MI, but it was, nonetheless, a carefully thought-out strategy and foreshadowed the growing number of MI distributors in the UK which have also decided that, while distribution per se works for some, it can be a pretty insecure way of earning a living.  

As Frost says, with the increasing number of takeovers and buyouts today, while you may have a perfectly good relationship with a company whose products you distribute, that can disappear overnight and leave you effectively stranded and unable to service and support a product range. He points to the venture capital-backed buyout of one of the companies Lamba used to do tremendous business with as a potential case in point. Lamba saw the writing on the wall when that company was sold and decided it was time to get as much control over its own business as it could – hence the decision to concentrate on Kam. That said, Frost is quick to stress, if the right product comes along, Lamba wouldn’t automatically rule out distributing it for someone else, but owning its own brand is now seen as the way ahead. 

“We were a very successful distribution company, but we always felt in our heart of hearts that all we were doing was building someone else’s brand,” he says. 

Kam isn’t solely about LED lighting products, of course. The brand encompasses a wide range of PA gear, too, and is intriguingly well-placed in what has become, in recent months, a very changed market in the UK. With the demise of Carlsbro and the changes at Wharfedale, coupled with the move of some Chinese suppliers, which have been trying to
push their brands up into the reaches of ‘almost pro audio,’ the ‘working man’s PA’ market has suddenly started to look, if anything, under-supplied and a company able to offer Kam’s range of affordable PA gear has begun to operate in a less-populated market.

Being able to succeed depends on getting that product right and more than a few suppliers have come to grief in recent years by being over-reliant on their Chinese suppliers. Designs aren’t always right, quality control has been a major problem in some areas and supply issues (particularly in recent months, as financial turmoil has hit Chinese manufacturing – as even the mighty Loud Technologies found to its cost) have meant that it mattered not just to have Chinese sources, but the right Chinese sources.

Gerry Frost feels that Lamba has got this right: “There have been a lot of opportunities in recent months in the speaker and amp business. Because of the buying-power we have, with a big export market, it does make us very competitive in the UK. That export market growth has been pretty phenomenal lately, too. We’ve recently taken on Steve Schiffman – an icon in the industry – as our international export manager and the Frankfurt show was a huge success for us, with over 40 new distributors coming on board, bringing us up to over 60 distributors worldwide. What that does is give us a lot of influence and buying-power with our Chinese suppliers.”

Lamba takes its Chinese connection seriously, not buying badge-engineered products, but designing them in the UK and having strong and long standing relationships with suppliers overseen by Chinese shipping and logistics manager, Steven Sun, at the company’s head office in Dunstable, as well as Lamba’s own staff based in China.  

“We recognised several years ago that it is important to be able to speak the language and understand what is required to do business properly in China,” Frost says. “Paul Bierton, our director of product development, Frank Irish and I go to China numerous times every year to make improvements to our product range, keep an eye on our stringent QC procedures and to find new and higher quality manufacturers.”

One spin-off from Lamba’s buying-power in China has been the development of a healthy OEM business, where retailers and other companies in the UK can use Lamba’s leverage to their own advantage. Rather than taking the gamble of going it alone and finding a 20 or 40 foot container of rubbish arriving on their doorstep, companies can contract Lamba to get the right products for them, branded however they want. It has been, Frost says, a very useful adjunct to his business – and one that is growing, as companies see the advantages of utilising a larger, more experienced company's expertise and knowledge.

Meanwhile, back at Kam, one of the things distinguishing the approach Lamba has taken to its own brand is a willingness to spend money on promotion. Where some rivals seem to feel that money spent on advertising and marketing is a luxury, Lamba takes the view that it is essential, Frost reveals. “It has always been a major strength of Lamba and Charles Ward, who is our brand manager, has ensured that our promotional activities are second to none in the industry. In fact we’re probably one of the largest advertisers within the UK industry, with about 18 magazines that we currently advertise in on a
regular basis.”

Lamba’s efforts are particularly impressive here and are backed up by a long list of events promotions and associated activities. Though most of these tend to be in entertainment areas, the company is also very present in the MI market and is willing to help retailers that want to get on board what it believes is one of the few currently growing market sectors – lighting.

SEE THE LIGHT
Frost says: “The lighting market is a large growth area within the entire music industry – applicable to so many situations – particularly with lasers and the Parbar system. Lamba excels in helping dealers with evening and weekend shows to stimulate new customers. We’ll help in any way that we can to promote those evenings and bring in some extra turnover with healthy profits for retailers.”

This article began by suggesting that one of the things that sets Lamba aside is that it is less a follower of industry curves and twists than a predictor of them and this is borne out by a revelation from Frost that the company is shortly to begin UK manufacturing. After an era in which UK businesses had relentlessly outsourced production to countries with cheap labour, the idea has been mooted in recent months that the UK might be a good place to start making products again. But Lamba, true to form, had already worked that out and has a range of high-tech amplification products on the way, which will be not just designed in the UK, but made here too.

“We’re actually working on many UK projects, which we can’t discuss at this stage, for obvious reasons, but this one is near fruition,” Frost reveals. “This will put us at the forefront of technology and will enable us to be genuinely proud of UK manufacturing once again. Our market research tells us quite clearly that many retailers and a lot of our end-users would be proud to get behind a British-made product range. After many years of R&D, we are very close to launching.”

Though it may not have been on the tip of everyone’s tongue as a major MI supplier, Lamba has been heading in this direction for some years, adding products that mean it has a lot to offer music retailers – whether they are looking for PA products applicable to the gigging and smaller installation markets or for this intriguing potential growth area of affordable and convenient lighting. Lamba has a track record to be proud of and every intention of providing the MI industry with more profitable, innovative and reliable products long into the future.

LAMBA: 01582 690600