D&M Holdings Reorganizes Worldwide

There have been a flurry of announcements coming out of D&M Holdings regarding changes in personnel and sales strategy, and now we know why.

D&M has announced a global reorganization aimed at streamlining operations among its eight brands and bringing the company closer to its customers.

The privately-held company is now set up globally under three Strategic Business Units (SBUs): Consumer, Professional and OEM, according to CEO Jim Caudill, who joined the company in 2010 after spending years at Black & Decker. “I am trying to re-energize the company for growth,” says Caudill. “We want to be trend setters vs. followers.”

Part of that strategy is more transparency both internally with its 2,500 employees and externally with its reseller partners, including online, retail, specialty retail and custom integration.

“We have historically just been a holding company over eight independent brands. In the past, each brand tried to approach their markets from different directions. Under our new structure, we want to focus our energy and leverage our engineering capacities,” says Caudill.

“I want every employee to see what I see. They will see when changes are taking place. Change is OK. I want to inspire change. Our people need to be comfortable with it,” he adds, noting that the previous culture was one in which employees almost felt like they had to ask permission to speak with another division inside D&M.

As examples, he says D&M will be improving its service and supply chain management by appointing a senior vice president of global operations, which took a bit of a hit when the company's factories were hit by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The goal is to “innovate and expand,” says Caudill, admitting that D&M has been technology-driven vs. a market-driven for many years. The company wrapped its Escient and Snell brands into other brands in 2010.

As part of the strategy, Caudill says D&M, which runs the Denon, Marantz, Boston Acoustics and McIntosh brands in the custom installation space, will “move marketing closer to the individual markets.” In other words, D&M staff will spend time inside the stores of their big-box retail partners, the showrooms of their custom/specialty resellers, and the offices of their online vendors. From that interaction, the company will help those partners develop better marketing techniques to reach consumers, whether it be point-of-purchase displays or online programs. Denon will also be establishing an online portal for consumers to buy direct.

Personnel Moves Continue
As part of the restructuring, three of D&M's longtime industry faces - Bob Weissburg, Stephen Baker and Phil Cohn - have left. The Consumer Division is now being by Tim Bailey, another former B&D executive. Bailey is based in Japan and will oversee the Denon, Marantz, Boston Acoustics and McIntosh brands.

Industry veteran Kevin Zarow has taken on the role of vice president of sales and marketing. The division will also be hiring a new vice president of product marketing. The company will also be hiring individual product marketing managers to focus on new growth categories. Caudill adds that he is seeking to hire a new North American president.

Bailey cited Petro Shimonishi as one example. Her role with the company is to focus on the company’s headphones product category. Caudill says other product categories of focus will be in the area of cloud content. “We will not have $29 headphones and $79 AVRs,” notes Caudill. “We will have quality and high end.”

Similar positions will be filled in the D&M Professional (covering Allen & Heath and Calrec brands for broadcast, pro audio and DJs) and OEM Divisions (primarily focused on automotive speaker solutions).

So when will dealers start seeing the effects of all these changes? Caudill expects in the next 12 to 18 months dealers will start seeing new products and they will experience the benefits of the operational improvements even sooner.