SCHOOL - Music Inc. Magazine

THE CAVANAUGH CO. I BY JEFF CAGLE
A LEGACY OF R&D
Keeping R&D alive
and well could be
Jim Cavanaugh’s
secret to a smooth
succession.
In fact, his first order of
business when taking over for
his father, John, at The
Cavanaugh Co. was finishing a
project they’d been working on
for a year: swapping out traditional
brass for copper eyelets
on Super-Sensitive’s Red Label
violin strings.
“Working in a family business
has its challenges, but
overall, it’s been very rewarding
to collaborate with my
dad,” said Cavanaugh, company
president. “We work side
by side like we always have,
and I’m taking the company to
the next level when it comes
to combining all three companies
[Super-Sensitive, Black
Diamond Strings and Bari],
making it a one-stop shop. We
are always brainstorming
what we should be doing and
what we should be focusing
on in the marketplace. He and
I work very well together, just
like he and my grandfather
worked very well together.”
HIGH-END SOUND, LOW-END PRICE
According to Cavanaugh, he
and his father have a
shared vision of wanting to be
known as a boutique with great
Jim Cavanaugh
R&D capabilities. The Red
Label line’s transition to copper
eyelets is their latest effort.
“Customers said they loved
the price point, durability, features
and benefits, but if only
there was a way to make it
sound warmer,” Cavanaugh
said of the strings. “People who
wanted that warmer sound
would step up from a $20 set of
Red Labels to a $60, $70 or $80
set of perlon-core strings,
which is a complete category
change from a beginner string
to an intermediate to pro string.
School systems — our major
customers — are just not there.
“I knew if we changed the
anchor it would do that. It
would take the traditional
steel-core string and give it
more warmth and projection.”
KEEPING IT LOCAL
Red Label’s packaging also
received a facelift recently,
and the rest of the company’s
products will follow suit over
the next several months.
Cavanaugh said the new packaging
reduces waste by 45 percent,
is biodegradable and uses
a vapor corrosion inhibiting
(VCI) technology. This features
a special lining of molecules
inside the sealed package
to protect each string from
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potential oxidation.
VCI technology was developed
to protect overseas
orders, and Cavanaugh said he
takes pride in keeping production
at the company’s Sarasota,
Fla., facilities.
“It would have been a lot
easier to build a factory in
China and ship them within
the country instead of figuring
out how to export there and to
all the various countries we
get orders from, and how to
get them to these instrument
companies who are manufacturing
in China and then sending
them back to the U.S.
market,” he said. “We wanted
to be sure when we did ship
our U.S.-made product overseas
on a boat that it was as
fresh as it was the day it was
made, regardless of the conditions
it faced.”
The new packaging has let
the company add automation
to a traditionally hands-on
process, giving it a high degree
of manufacturing control.
“The new packaging allows
us to add automation into the
process, which in turn allows us
to keep up with orders,”
Cavanaugh said. “We make 99.9
percent of our product here in
Sarasota, Fla. We’re going to
keep it here with automation
and also maintain our quality
product and service.” MI
OCTOBER 2010 I MUSIC INC. I 29