Gibson Brands has announced another strategic acquisition heading into the new year. GWW, a long-standing supplier of premium cases for Gibson, and other music instrument companies, was acquired by Gibson Brands at the end of December 2021.
GWW (General Wood Workers) has been a family-owned business building world-class cases for instruments and other categories for over 65 years. Since 2002, Gibson has had an association with GWW, but more recently (in 2019) a more formal partnership was formed under the new Gibson Brands Management Team. Entering 2021, Gibson became the main customer of GWW which led to the logical next step of bringing GWW into the Gibson Brands Family.
“GWW has been a key partner and supplier to Gibson over the years, so this deal made sense all around,” says James ‘JC’ Curleigh, President & CEO of Gibson. “The combination of their experience and our investment will lead to continued growth and momentum together”.
“Our partnership with Gibson has gone from strength-to-strength over the past few years, leading to Gibson becoming our largest customer by far,” adds Stephen Flynn, CEO of GWW. “We are excited to join the Gibson Family to bring our expertise and ideas to the next level.”
Over the past two years (since the start of Covid-19), supply chain management has become a key focus point for brands and businesses. Not to mention the need to continually invest and innovate to create strategic advantages with vertical integration. This move puts Gibson in a position of strength within a key category--guitar cases.
“We are always exploring ways to leverage our partnerships beyond the basics, especially over the past year and a half,” says Jeremy Freckleton, Chief Production Officer at Gibson Brands. “This move will take our partnership to a new level of category control and innovative solutions with the combination of Gibson and GWW. We are excited to engage with Stephen, Ed, and the entire GWW Team.”
Gibson will take the next few months to align on integration and future business plans.
