>>NOTE: UPDATED MARCH 9TH – SEE BOX BELOW<<
<March 7, 2012> Last week, Stratecon’s BEACON broke the news about a major overhaul and consolidation of D&M Holdings’ sales representative and distributor network. Later that day, D&M confirmed our initial report, releasing a statement spelling out the substantive, albeit generally described, changes to their sales network. Now the ALERT has discovered that not all of D&M’s rep territories were merged – in select markets, separate sales rep forces are being maintained.
Our report appeared in the March 1st BEACON based on multiple sources who had come forward telling us that D&M was consolidating its network of sales representative firms which, up until now, consisted of separate representatives for D&M’s Marantz line…and Denon/Boston Acoustics lines. Much like other companies have done, our sources suggested that there would be one representative firm in each territory carrying all three brands.
Specifically non-specific…
An official statement by D&M Holdings, Inc. President of Sales and Marketing for the Americas Brian Poggi released later the same day the BEACON story appeared, did confirm the restructuring of its sales channel – but contained mostly general, non-specific, and even vague language.
For example, in addressing the sales force consolidation, the statement noted that “…D&M is repositioning our sales organization to focus squarely on our key D&M brand customers and aggressively drive growth…” No specific explanation or example was offered explaining just what this statement meant relative to the sales force consolidation.
Elusive elements…
Yet another element of the D&M sales channel restructuring is that several key dealers are going to be handled on a direct basis by the company – rather than be serviced by a sales representative organization as has been the case up until now. And also, the company is discontinuing its relationship with ADI and moving its Denon and Boston Acoustics brands to distribution by AVAD which already handles their Marantz line.
Addressing these key elements, Poggi said, “This new alignment will include direct distribution to those retailers where it makes the most sense, as well as a targeted and more streamlined distribution of products and brands to those dealers where such a business model will be advantageous for both parties.”
The company did release a separate statement specifically addressing the move from ADI to AVAD. This press release did provide more explanation and details on this element of the overall restructuring.
ALERT research…
After the BEACON story appeared last week, we began to hear from multiple sources that the various reports that have appeared in the BEACON and other trade outlets have confused the market as the information in them was incomplete. There was, our sources told us, more to the story.
In fact, in several key territories – we can now report – D&M has NOT consolidated their sales force and has kept separate rep organizations for each of their brands.
Don’t call us, we’ll call you…
For the last several days, we have contacted D&M through their press representative to get clarification of just what firms are merged or independent. After several attempts we were told that the company would handle the matter internally and there would be no public announcement addressing the issue.
Still, the call volume at our office continued to increase and we were forced to poll a series of reliable sources to determine which are the specific territories where D&M brands have not been merged.
Based on our research, we were able to determine that the following representative territories have remained independent:
FLORIDA
LP Hench – Denon & Boston Acoustics
Perpetual Marketing Associates – Marantz
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Novidor & Firestone – Denon & Boston Acoustics
Morris-Tait – Marantz
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Novidor & Firestone – Denon & Boston Acoustics
Redwood Marketing – Marantz
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Novidor & Firestone – Denon & Boston Acoustics
Oliver Marketing – Marantz
D&M Holdings has today confirmed that the results of our research are accurate. All other territories have had the lines consolidated to one representative firm.
After this story ran on March 8th, we received several calls notifying us that there was an additional region – the Rocky Mountain States – which also continued with separate reps for D&M brands. They are:
ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES
Excel Marketing – Denon & Boston Acoustics
Performance-Plus Marketing – Marantz
D&M has again confirmed this information, no explanation was given why they confirmed the original report as accurate when it apparently was not. We sincerely apologize for any confusion our story may have caused.
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