A custom-designed store with an education center, espresso stand and seven-figure revenues is not what usually comes with the thought of a family-owned musical equipment business. But Beacock Music has all that, and more.
Russ Beacock and his sister Gayle Beacock have brought strong and steady growth to their family business – about 20 percent growth annually – since the late 1980s. In 2007 the business brought in $5.5 million.
The business moved to a 20,000-square-foot building worth $3 million in July 2004. The store on 163rd Avenue in Vancouver doubled the size of the shop their parents opened in 1976.
Inside is just about every piece of equipment a musician could need, along with books of sheet music, a lunch and espresso stand, gifts and children’s products. On its second floor is an education center, where 35 part-time teachers give lessons to more than 850 students every week. It offers private lessons and group classes for everyone from infants to senior citizens. Guitar lessons draw 25 percent to 30 percent of the students. There are 30 full-time staff in addition to the part-time teachers.
The owners made a point of investing in one store rather than opening multiple locations.
“We didn’t want one pretty good store and a few mediocre stores,” said Russ Beacock, the company’s president. “It’s a destination type of business. People will drive farther if you knock ‘em out with your offerings.”
The siblings grew up with the business and are musicians themselves. He’s a drummer and she plays the flute. They explored their own career paths as they entered adulthood, but it wasn’t long before both wanted to help expand their parents’ work. Russ Beacock came back to the company in 1987 after working as a sales manager at Hilton Hotels in Los Angeles, and Gayle Beacock, the company’s vice president and education center director, returned in 1989 after working in tourism and travel.
She said her role with the company lies in visioning and marketing, while her brother is more business oriented. Their parents, Dale and Susan Beacock, had a similar partnership.
“That’s why they were successful and that’s why it works with us,” Gayle Beacock said. “To have it balance our interests and skills is really lucky.”
Their father teaches the New Horizons seniors band four days a week and both parents serve as advisers to the business.
Their parents taught them to listen to customers when determining ways to move the business forward. A rent-to-own piano offering was added based on customer requests. And as the education center grew, families needed a way to pass the time during children’s lessons. So a lunch stand was added with pastries and espresso.
A unique program that serves area schools was also added based on parent and teacher requests. For 10 years employees have traveled to schools to pick instruments up for repair, drop off rental instruments and sound equipment, or bring instruments for band students to try.
“The (merchandise) is really all the same so you have to have the other stuff that makes you compelling to customers,” Russ Beacock said.
Their parents focused on community involvement from the get-go, and had regular representation at community music contests and festivals. The second generation intentionally expanded that community involvement by building a facility that could host events.
On any given Saturday there could be three recitals, a CD release party and children’s story time happening in the store. The company also gives “many thousands” of dollars in time and in-kind donations, and Russ Beacock hopes to see that increase.
“It makes us feel good and it perpetuates music. In return for that we ask for a shot at their business,” Russ Beacock said.
While the slick appearance of the store makes some visitors think the business is part of a larger chain, the Beacocks plan to keep their work local.
“We really try to operate it like a small-town, family-owned business,” Gayle Beacock said.
“We don’t have to call corporate,” Russ Beacock said with a laugh. “I think independent companies like ours are higher on the importance scale to vendors. You can’t homogenize (our approach) over 27 locations.”
Charity Thompson can be reached at cthompson@vbjusa.com.
