In the Spotlight: Taylormade Music Australia

With a passion for music, and a strong commitment to customer service, Howard Taylor and Martin Luck have established Taylormade Music Australia as a growing professional musical instrument distributor.

The duo chat about TMA's relationship with John Packer Musical Instruments, including the diverse instrument lines, the service they have received from JP, and their plans for the future.

Give me an overview of Taylormade Music Australia.

ML: We're a distributor, mainly for John Packer, along with a few associated brands.

We deal largely with the retail market, with a couple of large retail stores.

Tell me about how the relationship with John Packer Musical Instruments came about.

HT: This goes way back. When I moved from the UK to New Zealand, I lived in New Zealand for five years and got very friendly with a man named Riki McDonnell. Riki was doing John Packer back then.

I moved to Brisbane five years later and we started a relationship with Riki and Rhys McDonnell. We brought the John Packer range to Australia, and we’ve been doing that for eight years now.

What is it that impresses you about the John Packer range?

HT: I think the John Packer range offers so much. We’re very heavily involved with students and schools. I run a brass academy, which is with young tackers, and they're all on the John Packer student range.

But the great thing is, apart from the wonderful service we get from the JP team in the UK, the three or four ranges on each instrument; starting from the younger element, students who are the first timers, going right up to the professional level.

It’s also the sheer variety offered by JP Musical Instruments. You wouldn't believe the number of people asking for mini French horns. Last week we sold a post horn. Then there are the bugles; we sell a lot of bugles. That’s all outside the normal brass range of the trumpet, trombone, tuba etc, which is another great selling point.

How do you hope to see your relationship with John Packer Musical Instruments continuing to grow?

ML: We're growing as a company, and we’re hoping to continue to grow John Packer into Australia. We already carry most of what John Packer produces but there's room in the line-up for more, and we can expand that.