Hey, even the Chinese go out of business...

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Crusty
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Hey, even the Chinese go out of business...

Post by Crusty »

First I've heard of this - but I don't get out much...

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/ ... ?ana=yfcpc
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JR.
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Re: Hey, even the Chinese go out of business...

Post by JR. »

Yup that's pretty old news and only one of several OEMs in China that Mackie is working with.

A lot of small manufacturers; in China are having trouble. When the world catches a cold, they get pneumonia... they operate on very thin margins so have no headroom to survive slow times.

In hindsight with the slow economy, this is not the worst time for such a supply interruption, but it is never good to be completely out of a market segment.

JR
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Crusty
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Re: Hey, even the Chinese go out of business...

Post by Crusty »

From the last paragraph it sounds like it's a be popular product line that's shutdown:

The company warned that in addition to much lower 2009 net sales, it may not be able to comply with terms and conditions of its senior credit facility; may not have enough cash flow to meet its cash requirements; potential customers may choose a competitor’s product instead of waiting for Loud’s; and may have difficulties finding a new manufacturer.

I also read that they pulled themselves off NASDAQ. I'm sort of suprised they don't own thier own plant over there - that was all the rage seven or eight years ago. The Chinese would even finance it.

I was amazed that Mackie took off like it did and succeeded against the Japanese - especially Yamaha and Roland. The powerful combination of timing and savy marketing I guess.
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JR.
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Re: Hey, even the Chinese go out of business...

Post by JR. »

It wasn't really their decision to leave nasdaq. The stock has been trading for pocket change for quite a while,, The investment firm that already owns most of them has been planning to take them completely private for a while.

The short version of Mackie's success was to apply consumer type marketing in an industry that mostly marketed by using strong dealer distribution. Mackie added features to small mixers like PFL that were uncommon (inappropriate) on a mixer that small, but then advertised the piss out of it to make it a "must have" feature, so customers would come into dealerships and demand a Mackie.. They didn't know what PFL was, but knew they wanted it.

Back in the early days of Mackie they were doing more ads for that one mixer (1604), that I could spend on 1000 SKUs.

Their game eventually caught up with them as they built up a stable of products, and the rest of the industry adjusted to their advertising approach. Then behringer out mackied them with similar products built in china. Now they are just a decent collection of brands that a smart crew can exploit, or not, but they must partner with reliable OEMs to hold onto market share they bought with advertising years ago.

or not...

JR
Cancel the "cancel culture", do not support mob hatred.
Crusty
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Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:42 am

Re: Hey, even the Chinese go out of business...

Post by Crusty »

The birth of "Prosumer Audio"? Or maybe its coming-of-age. Alesis's ADAT certainly helped Mackie's cause too, and vis-versa.
It's Digidesign that seems to be losing the plot nowdays...
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