It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Fwiw I buy quite a few things from Andertons and consider them a great company for service. I won't stop but I am wary that this whole business plan is there to help us.
However, looking at it totally dispassionately, Richard's always said that he provides bigger and better services than Andertons, and that he always has at least as much business as he can cope with. There's no need to feel sorry for him, because by his own words this will never affect him.
It seems to me that the problem people have with this is not what they're actually doing, but what they might do in a worst-case scenario...which, by the way, they'd have to be utterly insane to even think about given the existing probe into price-fixing. Whatever else you might think of the guys who run these companies, they're not stupid.
My experience however is that this seldom leads to price reduction for consumers. It is a business strategy to increase/secure/protect margin.
Si
Anyone want to bet against the same price, for the same guitar with the spec - Of course their will be no 'official pricing policy agreement' in place as no official supplier, but such a consortium will only work when partners are equal !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Yet for the end consumer, G&L's will now be available with a more competitive price than in recent years - But don't expect one member of GAP to undercut another regarding advertised prices
Funnily enough, Mesa was my first thought when I watched the Richard’s Guitars video. The disparity in cost between here and the US is ridiculous - I can’t imagine much of their product sells over here now. This kind of arrangement could work very well.
I often wonder whether the big brands will move into retail themselves. ‘The Fender Store’, owned by the parent company, selling everything from Affinitys to Master Builts in major cities is a concept I could easily see happening. The depth of stock they could carry would make it very difficult for any independent to compete with them. As the big brands already do their own distribution, retail would seem the obvious next step.
Andertons could well be making a very clever move here....
Phew, that’s a relief.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
I'm a cynical bugger - sorry!
Feedback
The benefit for the end consumer will be a superior selection on line/instore - Prices to be confirmed, but certainly expect a far more competitive pricing than in recent years - Otherwise no point in setting up GAP
I'm sure other similar lines will be added as time goes on
GAP would not be doing this if they don't believe that both a market exists and it will compliment their existing stock profile
The negative will be less secondary lines available to the independent stores and this will get worse as GAP add lines in the future
How successful it will be, then only time will tell - A reservation on my part will be when one part of GAP sells less than the other partners, yet a financial commitment is required for the next pending delivery, so will they wish to continue to support it to the same level ?
Having distribution rights can mean a lot of things - it depends on the deal struck. If it’s cash up front for stock (unlikely) then you may see them pushed for a while but if they don’t sell there will be slash and burn sales. If it’s pay on sale then there will be a slow dribble of stock.
Its most likely that they all wanted another brand in the portfolio and decided to use their collective capacity to warehouse/distribute themselves and cut their cost base.
Cutting your cost base doesn’t mean lower prices - nor does it mean more stock available.
The old 'middle man' distributor model needs to go, IMO.
As distributor I could easily see a £1000 G&L being imported by the group for under £300
These things potentially give a good brand like Ernie Ball better presentation in the market.
One of the issues I see as a distributor (non musical) is a lot of distributors fail to build the brand in their local market and really just act as box shifters or have a product range as a list of SKU's available to dealers in a catalogue.
Plus these days I also think the bulk or retailers in most markets are simply lazy and perhaps 10 or 15 years ago retailers were still selling things they believed in, these days they are just selling whats popular or available to them. So a lot of retail has become very homogenised there is very little difference in price or choice of goods everybody just wants to sell what people buy rather than making themselves a good market with a new brand. Richards Guitars are bothering to do videos but his whole mantra has become the besieged little guy the peoples champion. I suppose it differentiates him but not sure it's overly productive in terms of sales.
I don't visit a lot of Guitar shops but I think stores like Coda have done a great job of picking up some of the alternatives but very good brands like Fano and some of the other US boutique builders they are the exception most stores just take the big names they can get.