I have been living in a village just outside Huddersfield for coming up 15 years. Yet for one of the biggest towns in the country there isn’t a lot in the way of music instrument retail going on.
When I first started visiting Huddersfield many years ago there were plenty of places for a musician to while away a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, including a decent sized Dawsons. But as it stands the only ones still open are outside of the main shopping centre.
Which is why I was a little intrigued when I received an email from member Keith Dawson Music inviting me along for a brew as he had something to discuss.
Keith’s shop is in Marsh, a vibrant area of the town along one of the main routes to both the M62 and Greenhead sixth form college. I haven’t seen Keith since my days at Shure and so I parked up (loads of free street parking outside) and pushed the door, wondering what he wanted.
‘Let me cut to the chase, I’m retiring’ he said within a nano-second of me being handed a mug of coffee: ‘I’ve turned Seventy and I’ve got some other stuff I don’t want to miss out on’.
Now, in itself this isn’t really news that would prompt me to pen a blog article, but as we continued chatting the arc of a narrative began to form.
Keith was comfortable with the decision to call it a day, and the only reason the decision seemed counter-intuitive was that the shop was doing really, really well. For a few years he had found a model that was working, and more importantly still growing.
“We have three teaching rooms upstairs, and we offer tuition for all the instrument groups that we sell – guitar, bass, piano & drums. I have three teachers and we currently have 80 students a week, though pre-pandemic it was 120. To be honest I have been managing the number a bit knowing that I was winding down.”
The music tuition side makes up about 30% of the turnover of the business, with another 30% coming from instrument maintenance and repair, which is predominantly guitar and bass. This has been growing steadily through the pandemic, driven by people rediscovering their musical mojo or just taking a punt on a second-hand guitar online.
“You would be amazed at how many musicians either don’t know how to re-string a guitar or just like the idea of a regular service and tune-up. There is clearly a lot of demand because I have also been training a number of people locally on guitar repair and maintenance.”
The balance of his turnover comes from straight-ahead retail sales, but even that has morphed a little over the last few years.
“For every person that has picked up an instrument during lockdown, then another one has had a clear-out. The quality of the second-hand guitars that I have been offered has been incredible, both in terms of build and variety. And I have a vibrant community of customers, constantly on the look out for something interesting to invest in.”
So there we have it, a general MI store with a community reach, built on a portfolio turnover model that appears to be thriving. It’s never going to conquer the world, but it’s self-contained, profitable and is successfully providing a mix of services to the community. And that might just be the special sauce.
Keith has been in business for 16 years, and he really hopes he can find somebody to take the shop forward. “As I said at the beginning, it’s the right time but it’s also hard to walk away from something that is performing well. I really hope I can find a buyer. I would be more than happy to stay on for a bit, and help somebody get established if I thought it would mean the business would continue.”
If you want to know more please drop me a note here and I can put you in touch with Keith
