Beyond The Sprues
General Category => Market Place => Support Products => Topic started by: The Big Gimper on October 05, 2014, 05:46:48 AM
-
Found this over at 72nd Scale Aircraft.
Mike McMahon, who purchased Military Model Distributors/Squadron mail order from founder Jerry Campbell in 2005, has left to "pursue other opportunities." Most are unaware that about 2009, Banyan Investment Partners of Florida (http://www.banyanmezzaninefunds.com/portfolio (http://www.banyanmezzaninefunds.com/portfolio)), a group which assisted McMahon's purchase of MMD in 2005 and which still holds MMD in its portfolio, gained control. Some time after Banyan took over, McMahon was forced to hire a Chief Operating Officer; the person chosen, Janene Boughton, came from the computer gaming industry (Electronic Arts). It is said that the two of them did not get along at all, but she has also left to "pursue other opportunities." It is rumored that McMahon fired Boughton and the investors subsequently fired McMahon, but the truth will probably never be known.
It is also reported that, under the new regime, vendors went unpaid. At least one has reported attempts to "strong-arm" shipment of new product when previous invoices had not been paid, and that vendor has ceased doing business with MMD. It is also reported that certain franchisees of a major chain have given their purchasing agents orders to stop dealing with MMD due to poor performance, wrong orders, and broken promises. Disgust has also apparently spread to Wonderfest in Kentucky, where MMD's reputation is now established with the SciFi modeling community, big consumers of Vallejo paints.
At the last Squadron Open House, it was obvious that inventory levels were extremely low, possibly even lower than 50%. Many items have been out of stock for months; is this the result of a decision by investors to deliberately reduce inventory levels? A new CEO, Gwynne Gorr, formerly with Franklin Mint, has been appointed. What does this mean for the future of Squadron Publications and EagleQuest? Will MMD become strictly a seller/distributor of die-cast models? The modeling world wonders. More should be revealed at the iHobby Exposition this weekend.
This and comments can be found in the original thread (http://z15.invisionfree.com/72nd_Aircraft/index.php?showtopic=5839) over at 72nd Scale Aircraft Forum.
-
One of those things that just proves people are idiots, and I don't mean the business folk involved.
This:
Will MMD become strictly a seller/distributor of die-cast models?
So frigging stupid, yes Gwynne was Chief Marketing Officer at Franklin Mint, but that was her old job,
which has nothing to do with her new job.
>:(
Friggin' morons.
Jim McNerney was CEO at 3M prior to becoming CEO at Boeing, by the logic those idiots are using
Boeing should have changed to tape manufacture when McNerney took over.
>:(
:icon_fsm:
-
There seems to be a lot of problems with Squadron MMD of late. I noticed in the recent link that was eMailed to me that a number of items were on sale but in that list of items were many that were out of stock and had been for a very long time. For example, the DML M55 MMGC aka "Quad Fifty" that has been unavailable for over a year was included in the sale list with absolutely ZERO in stock. That kind of inattention to details does not look very good from my perspective. Some of the past issues with the inability to notify via eMail when the order has been shipped resulted in more telephone calls to obtain order numbers and other details so the merchandise could be tracked. Sprue Brothers on the other hand is all over that stuff and they are very quick to respond if there is a problem. If this kind of slack service continues it could well see Squadron MMD being acquired by another company just to fix the problems. My satisfaction of late has been mixed, some orders actually show up rather fast but as a test, items were ordered from Sprue Brothers and Squadron on the same day within minutes of each other and Sprue Brothers shipment was on my doorstep two days ahead of the Squadron MMD order. Both orders were delivered by FedEx.
-
Can't say that I'm surprised. Squadron has been kind of "iffy" for quite a while. I really don't shop with them anymore, sorry to say.
-
not surprised to hear this, it happens even in the best industries.
Some years ago I had similar problems with the local Revell/Monogram agent-wholesaler - complained to Revell US but it still took two years for them to act & appoint a new agent .... it just takes lots of time for action & things to get back on track.