Fender IPO, GC Risk, Bain, past connections on top!

[Ken Smith]

Fender started it's own accessory distribution for wholesale about 10 years ago or so. We became their 'Boutique' Bass String supplier. They would send us UPC labels and we would stick them on all the various sets they carried. We only have UPC's on a few sets so with some of the custom 5 and 6 string sets, they just made up their own UPC's and we stuck them on for them.

The top two distributors then in competition with them were Kaman (#1) and Musicorp (#2). Then, #1 bought or merged assets and forces with #2 becoming the biggest #1 with anyone else being a far distant #2 in the wholesale distribution game.

Shortly after that, Kaman/Musicorp merged with Fender, becoming like the ABC, NBC and CBS of Television all under one Team. At that time, Fender stopped carrying our Strings. Musicorp whom we had been selling strings to before would not continue offereng them due to the UPC issue and nor would they do with us what Fender had done, supply the labels in bulk for us to apply. We had been and are still selling them our Pro Formula Polish because we added a UPC code on the bottles and 6-pack boxes around that merge time.

So with all that happening on one side and the various brands bought up by Fender, the 2008 economic tumble was like getting hit from all sides. Adding the GC debt to all these Woe's makes Fender one not so happy Camper by the end of the day.

I do wish them a better future and would not be scared to jump into that IPO in some small way but at this time, Not even Fender thinks they are ready for Wall Street just yet.