On May 16, Guitar Center gave notice to Behringer that it would no longer be carrying any of the company’s products in-store and terminating its relationship with Behringer for the foreseeable future. The decision was made by Guitar Center executive leadership based on what they describe as, “Behringer’s revision to unreasonable business terms late last year and a continuous history of attempting to force unfavorable changes into agreements.”
A spokesperson for Guitar Center said, “Decisions like this are never made easily. There are rare occasions where the integrity of the relationships and agreements we make with vendors are challenged, despite the potential impact to the bottom line or overall sales. We can’t speak for anyone else in the industry, but we’d had enough of watching Behringer try to do business this way. It’s not the way we like to work with people and it’s not productive. They made some questionable choices that put us into a position to develop a contingency plan. As we re-evaluated that plan several weeks ago, we found that it would allow us to build better relationships with other vendor partners in the category. When Plan B starts to make this much business sense, it became clear we didn’t need to tolerate this anymore. We’re focused on where we can succeed in partnership with our new vendors, and we’re excited about the future.”
A MUSIC Group press release issued May 21 and attributed to Uli Behringer, CEO, expressed surprise at the development. It read, “We were surprised by a recent public statement issued by Guitar Center. Over the last year, due to GC’s highly publicized financial situation, we were forced to evaluate their credit worthiness. As a result of their credit rating, it was determined that they were a high risk and we were forced to put them on business hold. We certainly respect GC’s decision to discontinue business with us, and we thank them for our excellent 20-year relationship.”