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Author Topic: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.  (Read 27741 times)

John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #30 on: June 07, 2014, 11:43:33 AM »

While not singled out as "the" factor, I suspect there was tension related to Behringer changing from distributing themselves in the US to using a separate distributor.

For commodity product, like the majority of Behringer SKUs it is all about the price. If US distribution added another mark-up to GCs cost structure that could have a damping effect.

As I previously mentioned Behringers recent growth (thanks to X32) required working capital so they were not in a position to be overly generous about payment terms. I can imagine a negotiation between the new sharp pencil crowd at GC and behringer going poorly, especially if both thought they had the stronger hand to play.  :o


or not...  Not biscuits, more like cheap appliances sold by Walmart

JR
   
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Andrew Broughton

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #31 on: June 07, 2014, 02:23:47 PM »

Two weeks later Louigi's bakery is closed. It turns out he couldn't raise enough dough so he went on the loaf.
Except if this were a true story, it would be the good bakery that went out of business, because you were the the only person who cared about good biscuits and good service. Everyone else only cared about lowest price.
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Scott Bolt

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #32 on: June 07, 2014, 04:30:57 PM »

Quote
I can imagine a negotiation between the new sharp pencil crowd at GC and behringer going poorly, especially if both thought they had the stronger hand to play.  :o
LOL.  Indeed.  The most lethal combination for any negotiation.

I suspect that Behringer supply problems (or demand problems depending on if you are a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of guy), further exasperated the poor negotiations.
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Lyle Williams

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #33 on: June 07, 2014, 05:18:25 PM »

More likely that the old distributor had offered extended terms over time, and the new distributor was unwilling to continue these terms forward.  Probably in conjunction with pressure from other Behr channel partners who were pissed hearing stories that GC/MF got better terms without paying bills on time.

Business negotiations are always have many dimensions.
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Brian Jones

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #34 on: June 08, 2014, 04:18:01 PM »

It seems to me that Behringer's move to save taxes, had the effect of making GC/MF take on more of a distributor role which costs money. Having to order once per month means you have to carry more stock. Carrying more stock means less float on your lines of credit, or more credit up front to pay for merchandise up front. Either way, it was messing with their bottom line. If they were already experiencing financial difficulty, I can see where that would cause problems.

I don't know how much of which side of the story is factual, false or exaggerated, but bottom line is, I will buy fewer Behringer products because of this. Some stuff doesn't have to be demoed, but stuff like speakers and a full digital mixing board do. My local mom n pop hasn't sold Behringer for years, if ever. So locally anyway, there is no place for me to check them out.

I tend to order/buy local if I go in to check out the item vs. just checking out specs online. It seems ethical to me. But I know a lot of people demo local, and then buy online almost exclusively, so I'm wondering if this situation will affect Behringer's sales at online retailers too.
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Scott Bolt

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #35 on: June 08, 2014, 04:24:30 PM »

It seems to me that Behringer's move to save taxes, had the effect of making GC/MF take on more of a distributor role which costs money. Having to order once per month means you have to carry more stock. Carrying more stock means less float on your lines of credit, or more credit up front to pay for merchandise up front. Either way, it was messing with their bottom line. If they were already experiencing financial difficulty, I can see where that would cause problems.

I don't know how much of which side of the story is factual, false or exaggerated, but bottom line is, I will buy fewer Behringer products because of this. Some stuff doesn't have to be demoed, but stuff like speakers and a full digital mixing board do. My local mom n pop hasn't sold Behringer for years, if ever. So locally anyway, there is no place for me to check them out.

I tend to order/buy local if I go in to check out the item vs. just checking out specs online. It seems ethical to me. But I know a lot of people demo local, and then buy online almost exclusively, so I'm wondering if this situation will affect Behringer's sales at online retailers too.

One has to wonder at the viability of brick and mortar stores of many types.  Is the business still a viable one?
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Brian Jones

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #36 on: June 08, 2014, 09:24:57 PM »

One has to wonder at the viability of brick and mortar stores of many types.  Is the business still a viable one?

Diminishing for sure, but manufacturers need to find other ways to give hands on buying experiences then. Not everyone goes to trade shows. And of course, the need to hear A/B tests means someone else would probably be footing the bill for the cost.
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Dan Mortensen

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #37 on: June 09, 2014, 12:28:33 AM »

I was the last Live Sound Buyer at Musician's Friend from 2009-2011 before all Musician's Friend functions were moved to the GC headquarters in LA and the company ceased to exist as a separate entity. All of the problems between Behringer and GC/MF began in 2009-2010 when Behringer chose to close their warehouses in the US so Behringer would have no US tax presence. This forced us to start buying container-direct only and only one large order could be placed once a month. Behringer continued for almost two years to give us inaccurate PO information, change our costs (even in transit), and discontinue products with no warning which we were advertising which lead to huge backorders and customer dissatisfaction. At that time GC chose to drop most of their significant business with Behringer and switch to Alto; I chose to de-emphasize their products and focus more on other brands. Credit hold is common in MI since large purchase orders cause it automatically. Sure, Guitar Center is having their issues but you can be assured that Behringer caused this and GC has tried to make this relationship work for too long.

Some or a lot of this sounds entirely believable to me; early on in my relationship with Behringer products, I would talk to Starin to seen when the X32 shipment would arrive and when the product would be available, and they very insistently said that they had no idea when the containers would arrive or what was in them.

When I pointed out that what was in them would very closely correlate to what was put in before shipping, and surely there must be a list of what was packed, they would deny that there was any way to know and that we would see when it arrived, whenever that was.

I can see where that would be aggravating to a big retailer that needs a supply of product to make money selling it.

It was also aggravating to a little retailer when GC had plenty of Behringer product to sell but the distributor didn't have any for little retailers. So, regardless of who said "no" first, it's hard to shed a tear that the B/GC relationship is severed.
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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #37 on: June 09, 2014, 12:28:33 AM »


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