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Junior Varsity
Uli Behringer of The Music Group Q&A
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<blockquote data-quote="Uli Behringer" data-source="post: 51194" data-attributes="member: 1604"><p>Re: Uli Behringer of The Music Group Q&A</p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">Dear Jack,</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">Thank you for your honest comments. While I would argue with some of the assertions, I do respect your point of view and the passion with which you write. Allow me to offer my view.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">When I started the company in Germany 23 years ago, I set out to create great product, and do it at a low cost in order to make products available for people who do not have deep pockets. Having been a student with no money myself, I understand the difficulty aspiring musicians have and hence it became my philosophy in life and later the Company philosophy to offer the best possible products at the best possible price.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">Admittedly it was easier to maintain low product costs when we were a tiny business literally working out of a barn. Even in those days though we took great care in our designs, board layouts, sought out the best parts and built our products to be reliable and affordable. In those early days I designed everything myself – from the mechanical and circuit design to the PCB layout and I even assembled the products myself. I do understand processes and manufacturing and even today I spend much of my time in our factory as this is where we put a tremendous focus.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">20 years ago we moved our manufacturing to Asia in pursuit of lower cost and frankly, better yields. As our volume grew dramatically we discovered that the batch manufacturing we were doing in Germany was no longer able to keep up with demand. So we moved our exact same designs, the exact same parts and the exact same processes to the lower-cost and higher-volume of a contract manufacturer in China. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">Obviously there were growing pains as 20 years ago, we were the first audio company to move production to China and no experienced audio manufacturer existed. In order to oversee production I relocated to HK and China and taught those manufacturers how to produce audio products. Ironically today these are the exact same manufacturers who make products for our competitors.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">The reality of manufacturing in China is that you must control it or it can wipe you out. We learned that quickly, but those early missteps still haunt us today. In the early years we used 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party manufacturers such as Kwanasia and others who had little experience with audio products. Also it is common knowledge that those manufacturers substitute parts behind your back in order to maximize profit and your work instructions only last for the time that you are in the factory and are reversed when you leave. Interesting is that Kwanasia whom we abandoned for quality reasons now manufactures for brands such as Avid, Soundcraft, Peavey etc. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">Frankly it is a losing battle and this made us decide to open our own manufacturing plant over 10 years ago. Today we are one of the very few companies who own the manufacturing plant and we are proud of our dedicated people and the quality systems. Was it easy? Absolutely not, but it was worth the pain as today it is a huge competitive advantage.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">When we acquired Midas, their people made it very clear to me that they would only agree to move manufacturing to China if we would invest in the most sophisticated equipment and they came up with a list that made us spend US$ 20 million last year. We built one of the most high-tech and automated plants in the world with high-precision SMT machines, in-circuit testers, optical inspection systems that automatically check every solder joint and x-ray equipment that can “see” through multilayer boards with fine-pitch and ball-grid parts.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">In return however I requested Midas to send their best engineers to be based in China and run the plant. This was the deal and today we have achieved amazing quality and a great teamwork. All our Behringer and Bugera products are now also made on the same equipment and as a result quality is among the best in the business; which is well documented. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">Our quality has increased so much that we also introduced a 3-Year Warranty program at the beginning of this year. To be perfectly clear, we do not make disposable products and there is no planned obsolescence. We make great product and because of our scale, in-house manufacturing and purchasing power we can make it at a lower cost. Since the very first day I started the Company, it is our philosophy to share those benefits with our customers and that’s how we achieve great loyalty and a production volume of around 5 million products per year.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'verdana'"><span style="color: black">As you said your feelings about us are equally emotional as much as logical. The emotional part I cannot address although again, I respect. On the logical side though I want to make it known that we are extremely proud of what we build and how we continue to improve quality and drive down costs to deliver value for our customers.</span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Uli Behringer, post: 51194, member: 1604"] Re: Uli Behringer of The Music Group Q&A [FONT=verdana][COLOR=black]Dear Jack,[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]Thank you for your honest comments. While I would argue with some of the assertions, I do respect your point of view and the passion with which you write. Allow me to offer my view.[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]When I started the company in Germany 23 years ago, I set out to create great product, and do it at a low cost in order to make products available for people who do not have deep pockets. Having been a student with no money myself, I understand the difficulty aspiring musicians have and hence it became my philosophy in life and later the Company philosophy to offer the best possible products at the best possible price.[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]Admittedly it was easier to maintain low product costs when we were a tiny business literally working out of a barn. Even in those days though we took great care in our designs, board layouts, sought out the best parts and built our products to be reliable and affordable. In those early days I designed everything myself – from the mechanical and circuit design to the PCB layout and I even assembled the products myself. I do understand processes and manufacturing and even today I spend much of my time in our factory as this is where we put a tremendous focus.[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]20 years ago we moved our manufacturing to Asia in pursuit of lower cost and frankly, better yields. As our volume grew dramatically we discovered that the batch manufacturing we were doing in Germany was no longer able to keep up with demand. So we moved our exact same designs, the exact same parts and the exact same processes to the lower-cost and higher-volume of a contract manufacturer in China. [/COLOR] [COLOR=black]Obviously there were growing pains as 20 years ago, we were the first audio company to move production to China and no experienced audio manufacturer existed. In order to oversee production I relocated to HK and China and taught those manufacturers how to produce audio products. Ironically today these are the exact same manufacturers who make products for our competitors.[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]The reality of manufacturing in China is that you must control it or it can wipe you out. We learned that quickly, but those early missteps still haunt us today. In the early years we used 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party manufacturers such as Kwanasia and others who had little experience with audio products. Also it is common knowledge that those manufacturers substitute parts behind your back in order to maximize profit and your work instructions only last for the time that you are in the factory and are reversed when you leave. Interesting is that Kwanasia whom we abandoned for quality reasons now manufactures for brands such as Avid, Soundcraft, Peavey etc. [/COLOR] [COLOR=black]Frankly it is a losing battle and this made us decide to open our own manufacturing plant over 10 years ago. Today we are one of the very few companies who own the manufacturing plant and we are proud of our dedicated people and the quality systems. Was it easy? Absolutely not, but it was worth the pain as today it is a huge competitive advantage.[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]When we acquired Midas, their people made it very clear to me that they would only agree to move manufacturing to China if we would invest in the most sophisticated equipment and they came up with a list that made us spend US$ 20 million last year. We built one of the most high-tech and automated plants in the world with high-precision SMT machines, in-circuit testers, optical inspection systems that automatically check every solder joint and x-ray equipment that can “see” through multilayer boards with fine-pitch and ball-grid parts.[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]In return however I requested Midas to send their best engineers to be based in China and run the plant. This was the deal and today we have achieved amazing quality and a great teamwork. All our Behringer and Bugera products are now also made on the same equipment and as a result quality is among the best in the business; which is well documented. [/COLOR] [COLOR=black]Our quality has increased so much that we also introduced a 3-Year Warranty program at the beginning of this year. To be perfectly clear, we do not make disposable products and there is no planned obsolescence. We make great product and because of our scale, in-house manufacturing and purchasing power we can make it at a lower cost. Since the very first day I started the Company, it is our philosophy to share those benefits with our customers and that’s how we achieve great loyalty and a production volume of around 5 million products per year.[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]As you said your feelings about us are equally emotional as much as logical. The emotional part I cannot address although again, I respect. On the logical side though I want to make it known that we are extremely proud of what we build and how we continue to improve quality and drive down costs to deliver value for our customers.[/COLOR][/FONT] [/QUOTE]
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