Peavey shut down

Re: Peavey shut down

Old news Peavey closed down the Corby facility in GB and closed a big plant in Meridian.

Probably some good (big) wood working machinery since they made speakers in Corby. Same thing for the plant closed in Meridian, big wood and metal working machinery there.

JR
 
Re: Peavey shut down

Dave Barnett said:
Replaced by facilities in China?
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Yes and no.... I hope this isn't top secret but Peavey looked into owning their own factory in China pretty seriously back 20 years ago but finally abandoned it. (I mostly agree with that decision both short term and long term, it would have been a huge diversion of focus and resources not to mention fun and games working with the Chinese government). Peavey is an international company selling product in more than one hundred countries. I actually visited contract manufacturing factories in China back before I quit almost 15 years ago. Back when the US was the dominant significant market for products, building gear here and shipping it around the world made sense, but starting a couple decades ago or more, trade relations (tariffs and duties) with China were relaxed (for many not all countries) so shipping products from the US became uncompetitive. I recall visiting a music store in Berlin back decades ago and seeing the "picky" German customers embrace Chinese made products because of the lower price at point of sale.

So the first wave was building product for the rest of the world to stay competitive against the other major brand early adopters. Peavey was reluctant to embrace Chinese manufacturing but not to the point of being self-destructive. As more domestic brands embraced Chinese manufacturing the logic of keeping domestic market manufacturing here (for value products) stopped making economic sense. The final question was whether to suffer the cost of tooling up the same products twice to build them in two different factories. The economics of that question should be obvious even to musicians. :-)

Peavey is just responding to market forces. The customer remains in charge and is always right (even when cheap). I suspect Peavey will still build some of their more expensive, and low volume products here, but expensive is not exactly the sweet spot for Peavey. I suspect manufacturing can move again to wherever it makes sense if and when China becomes too expensive (not for a while, but it could happen if I live long enough).

JR
 
Re: Peavey shut down

Maybe peavey should have open factory in china and it was mistake. Also no more innovation from peavey. Here in Europe the brand is dead and cannot find in stores.
 
Re: Peavey shut down

We can only assume the dealers in Louis's area are stocking what they can get, addressing the needs of their local economies, so product sits on the shelf no longer than 30 days. Peavey may not have the products the dealers need, or may not be able to deliver the products in a timely fashion. Product availability is a big deal. If we don't have it, we can't sell it.

It's sad to see the MI landscape change and see Peavey scaling back operations here. But, the USA is not the center of the world and is no longer the largest market. I grew up with Peavey and always had a fondness for Hartley, his attitude and his ability to squeeze a dime and get a dollar. He could use a dust collection system and build guitar cabs out of it. I am surprised he wasn't capturing the methane out of the septic system and generating power for the plant.

I appreciated that Peavey was an American product, built by Americans, for the blue collar weekend warrior. Generally speaking, Peavey was just as reliable as pro gear, just not as pretty, polished and great sounding. When I was starting out, it was what we could afford. When I was a kid, I wanted to work there and develop products. I have enjoyed dialoging with Marty McCann and others since the 80s. I enjoyed beta testing and ultimately endorsing a product once.

Peavey has plenty of innovation, has had a history of securing the resources capable of building far better products than the market could pay for. Think about it now Louis. What is that people want? 6,000 watt amps for $299, that will last forever, sound great and run on 1500W circuits. They want 32 channel digital consoles that rival the world's best, for $2500. What incentive does Peavey have to race to the bottom?
 
Re: Peavey shut down

Louis Ismael said:
Maybe peavey should have open factory in china and it was mistake. Also no more innovation from peavey. Here in Europe the brand is dead and cannot find in stores.
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Owning a factory in China would make a rather small difference in product cost vs. using a large contract manufacturer. The good large contract manufacturers only charge a slender profit margin, or they would lose business to the next contract manufacturer eagerly bidding for the same business.

I would not attempt to judge Peavey's sales success in Europe from a one customer anecdote (from an unnamed country). In fact local sales and marketing is the job of the local distributors and some countries are better served than others. The distributor needs to invest in inventory (few do seriously), so order-takers generally suffer from a long supply chain.

Decades ago I spent time visiting dealers in several European countries, often staying in europe for a few weeks after the Frankfurt show. I learned a bunch and enjoyed traveling with the Peavey reps and meeting Peavey dealers but marketing at such distance is never easy.

Innovation is a double edged sword. In my experience Peavey customers were not very comfortable with too much change. They generally want a product like all the others, just for a little less money, but built a little better... easy peasy...

JR

PS; Hartley has a well deserved reputation for being frugal...but no more stories today...
 
Re: Peavey shut down

Louis Ismael said:
Maybe peavey should have open factory in china and it was mistake. Also no more innovation from peavey. Here in Europe the brand is dead and cannot find in stores.
Click to expand...

Hello

A quick look at Thomann shows plenty of Peavey products ....

They also have solid reputation in these parts for what they are - basic work horses without bells and whistles.
 
Re: Peavey shut down

At thomann peavey have only 80 product and are rank 100 with all brands. Number one is behringer and 3 is yamaha. 20 years ago I buy much peavey but now it is not popular anymore. No digital products.
 
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