The Quick Study

Riversong Guitars, Kamloops

SPECIALTY: Acoustic guitars crafted in Kamloops, mostly from B.C. and other Pacific Northwest wood. The instruments feature a patent-pending adjustable neck LAUNCHED: 2006 EXPORTING SINCE: 2014 PROPORTION OF TOTAL SALES FROM EXPORTS: 80 per cent THE STORY SO FAR: In 2012, founder Mike Miltimore was nominated for Canada's Young Entrepreneur of the Year through Business Development Bank of Canada. The resulting publicity caught the attention of distributors in the U.S. and Malaysia. Miltimore suggested that they meet at the NAMM Show, an annual music products trade event in Anaheim, California. “So I built eight guitars, went down there in January 2013, met with the guys and negotiated a deal to start selling into the U.S,” he recalls. Distribution is relatively simple because Riversong ships to a single location in Nashville, Miltimore notes.

NAMM also helped Riversong, seven of whose 30 employees work in manufacturing, to reach beyond North America. After it struck a licensing deal with Brussels-based European Music Distributors, which had seen its guitars there, EMD went on to distribute them throughout Western Europe. Thanks

to the trade show, Miltimore hired veteran guitar export sales manager David Magagna, who introduced him to many companies Magagna had worked with via C.F. Martin & Co. and Taylor Guitars. As a result, Riversong started selling to China and Malaysia. TOP EXPORT CHALLENGE: “Communication is kind of difficult, and time zone changes,” Miltimore says. “I've been scammed a few times with these guys that want us to use their shipping companies and order stuff, and if you don't take deposits or know who they are, you can have some problems with that.” WHAT'S NEXT: As of April, Riversong was planning to start exporting to Japan and Argentina, and was in talks with New Zealand. “China's so huge you can have multiple distributors, so we have another distributor that we're just shipping to now,” Miltimore says.