Jim D'Addario & Rick Drumm on the Panel for Manhattan School of Music Event

D'Addario CEO Jim D'Addario and D'Addario President Rick Drum were among the distinguished guests and top music industry executives to sit on a panel recently for a master class in music entrepreneurship.  The event was set up by the Center for Music Entrepreneurship at the Manhattan School of Music as part of the Setting the Stage Workshop Series. Both Jim and Rick participated by sharing their experiences and successes in the music industry. Topics discussed included how to succeed as a music entrepreneur, how to best plan an artistic business venture and how artists and music product companies can best work together.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Tours D’Addario’s Farmingdale Headquarters

On Friday, October 5, 2012, Governor Cuomo, along with his Strategic Implementation Assessment Team and the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, toured D’Addario’s music string factory and headquarters.  Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, as well as other elected officials were part of the ensemble that toured D’Addario’s engineering, machine building and string production areas.

The Governor toured Cold Spring Harbor Labs, OCI Pharmaceuticals and D’Addario. All three sites were awarded New York State economic development assistance as part of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council’s strategic plan.  The Governor was impressed with the results achieved at all three locations.

While many of the LIREDC’s programs support advanced technology programs, the Governor and his team were relieved to see the success D’Addario has achieved producing high-volume, low-priced consumer products on Long Island.  “D’Addario’s culture for the last four decades has been to continually re-invest in technological advances that enable us to compete on a global basis with our competitors.  Our packaged strings are sold in over 120 countries and our bulk strings are installed on hundreds of thousands of guitars and violin family instruments every month. Factories from China to Eastern Europe to South America rely on our strings for the instruments they produce,” stated Jim D’Addario, CEO of D’Addario.

The Governor saw firsthand how D’Addario’s engineers and technicians design and build the world’s most advanced equipment. “D’Addario has over 1,100 employees worldwide and 800 on Long Island. Our team of 25 plus engineers is constantly advancing the art of string, reed, drumhead and drumstick manufacturing. Each time we add an engineer, you can be sure it will result in scores of new jobs in our factories,” stated Jim D’Addario.  It’s all music to the Governor’s ears.

US Representative Steve Israel Visits the D'Addario Factory

US Congressman Steve Israel paid to our factory this week in Farmingdale, Long Island, NY. Steve has been very proactive supporting manufacturing on Long Island. He created a manufacturing task force that I co-chair.  The committee came up with a Bring the Jobs Back Home bill that helps small businesses finance the capital expense of retooling to bring the manufacture of products being made off shore back to America.

D'Addario has always made all its strings, reeds and drumheads in America.  Three years ago, during the recession, we created the Make it Here program where we began to retool some of the Planet Waves accessories that were made off shore back here to America. This program has been very effective, and although D'Addario did not receive any government aid for these projects, they were used as an example for the Congressman to create a program to help other companies accomplish what we have accomplished on our own. Four years ago 87% of our products were made in USA, now 95% are. We now produce cables, pro winders, peg winders, humidifiers, sound hole covers, guitar rests, guitar straps and all our picks in the USA.

- Jim D'Addario, CEO D'Addario & Company