In a deal that was finalized on June 20 of this year, The Willis Music Company acquired Buddy Roger’s Music. The former competitors complement one another nicely, as Buddy Roger’s began focusing exclusively on school band a number of years ago, while Willis fields a full line of instruments and gear of all types.
MMR recently touched base with Willis Music’s president and owner, Kevin Cranley, about this significant move which strengthens and enhances the longstanding (since 1899!) MI retail icon’s ability to serve the greater Cinncinati, Ohio area.
Prior to the acquisition, had Willis Music and Buddy Roger’s been friendly or in any way collaborators in the past?
Kevin Cranley: Yeah, we’ve been friendly for sure. But we’ve been competitors the whole time – and we were in the same markets. We were fighting for the same accounts and, when they were in combo, we were very strong in combo, too. I think the important thing is that we always operated as competitors with honesty and integrity and that doesn’t always happen.
With that in mind, what was the catalyst behind this recent acquisition? Did they approach you?
I’ve personally made a point to always stay in touch with our competitors and we’ve been looking to expand specifically in band and orchestra. You know, “Hey, if you’re ever looking to retire or sell, please keep us in mind and we love to talk to you, I admire your business.” And Bill and I have had that kind of relationship when we’ve just talked many times over the past few years because I knew he had been thinking about retirement for a number of years. I just wanted to make sure he knew that I would love the opportunity to talk to him because they were our biggest competitor in the band side. They’re so well established in greater Cincinnati. We’re thrilled to be now joining with their team.
As I understand it, the existing staff at Buddy Rogers will all remain. Is that correct?
We had one person who left, but it was already known they were leaving. Other than that, everybody’s intact, everybody’s excited. I think the cool thing was that Bill wanted to keep it very quiet, because when you’re talking to your competitor, a deal can fall through. And for the company buying, it’s no big deal, but for the company selling, that’s a big deal if it falls through. Right after the closing, Bill spoke to the employees and then I came back and talked to our people, and I think everybody felt really good about it.
Two of my senior executive team – my CFO and Paul Finke, [vice president – Ed.] who’s been with me 35 years – they’ve been spending almost every day, part of the day, at Buddy Roger’s. It’s going very well.
So personnel will essentially stay the same – and that’s great – but there have been plenty instances where an acquisition like this happens and the boilerplate spin is, “Everything’s going to stay the same, including the name of the store.” Then, cut to eight months later and they’ve changed the name. Along those lines, do you see somewhere down the line rebranding the Buddy Roger’s location as Willis Music?
Our first goal has been: don’t touch anything. Let’s get through the rental season, let’s just have a great rental season with Willis Music and with Buddy Roger’s music. So that was the number one goal, but we’ve been through this before, so we bought another company back in, gosh, I think 2015. We kept their name for quite a while, but we transitioned it, and I can see this happening over time, but we wouldn’t make a sudden change.
Buddy Roger’s has long been recognized as a superior B&O retailer, but up until a while back, they did have a foothold in the combo world. Do you have any plans to re-energize that aspect of the business or will you be keeping that aspect of the business exclusively school band focused?
They will stay exclusively band and orchestra because they transitioned out a few years back and I thought it was just a great move on their part. We know that part of the business is just very strong and that’s why honestly we were looking to expand in that area. It’s funny you asked that. I was speaking with their employees on the day that we closed and that was one of the questions that came up right away. But as far as transitioning, there will be a time down the road when it’s probably Buddy Roger’s, a division of Willis Music. I think that’s the way of letting the public know that, yeah, it’s still Buddy Roger’s, but Willis is the overlying company and is operating in the same region.
Obviously this is huge news and if Willis Music does nothing more than just sort of ride out the transition that would, in and of itself, represent a huge year for the business. Having said that, is there anything else on the horizon that you’d like to share with MMR readers?
We always joked, as we’ve been talking to Bill for a while about this, that the day after we close somebody else will call, be looking to retire or something. So that has not happened. We have some breathing room here, but we continue to look to expand. We want to remain strong with a family-owned business in our industry, in our markets, and just stay strong that way because I think that’s the future of our business, the future of music education, and staying strong in the schools.
Speaking of that, we’re talking here in mid-summer, creeping up real quickly on back to school season. As we’ve been discussing, Buddy Roger’s is uniquely positioned to cater to that crowd. Do you have any plans for back to school sales, celebrations, initiatives, promotions, or anything along those lines?
We were told years ago – I can’t remember, but I think it was George Quinlan who said this – that they spend 48 weeks a year preparing for four weeks of the back to school season. And we approach it that way. And I know Buddy Roger’s has always done that, also. We feel like we’re ready. I mean, the sooner the better right now. It’s just great when it starts. We love the season and, you know, you gotta be ready and make everything work. You only get one shot at it.
Absolutely. Every year you really have to make that last week in July, first three weeks in August work.
Yeah. And, you know, COVID, it was just such a major thing because it hit in March [2020] – hit strongly; we had to close our stores for two months. Then we came back and schools never really started that year. Then we thought 2021 would be a banner year… and then the Delta variant came in at the last minute. Luckily, we finished very strongly and had a good year in ’21. But we’re looking for this year to just be great. Let’s hope for no more variants!
