Snaring business in Oxnard

By Maria Zate

July 21, 2000 Web posted at: 11:21 AM EDT (1521 GMT)

OXNARD, California (The Ventura County Star) -- Back in 1972, Don Lombardi was a 26-year-old drum teacher and professional musician just trying to make ends meet in Santa Monica. Today, he's the president of Drum Workshop, a premier custom drum manufacturing company in Oxnard with sales of $10 million and growing.

Drum Workshop relocated this month to a 52,000-square-foot building on Lunar Court, nearly doubling its previous 30,000-square-foot facility on Bernoulli Circle, where the company had been for the last eight years.

"Our growth was stymied by the fact that we were out of room in our previous space," Lombardi added.

At the new site, DW has consolidated all of its operations into one building. The old location had three structures.

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DW's new site also allows the company to improve its manufacturing efficiency and to provide additional warehouse space for its new line of entry-level drums called the Pacific line. That line is headed by Lombardi's son Chris, and expects to hit $2 million in first-year sales.

"It's a sign of good health for a local company to expand, and they're one of the companies in Oxnard that is among the best in its industry for high quality products," said Steven Kinney, president of the Greater Oxnard Economic Development Corp. "It's great that they've chosen to stay in Oxnard to accommodate their expansion."

Within the last three years, DW has grown from 50 to 100 employees. That's a long way from its origins as a studio and drum shop with a staff of two: Lombardi and student John Good.

Good wasn't a great drummer, but he and Lombardi shared a passionate interest in how drums worked and how they could be made better to improve a drummer's performance.

They made it their mission to continually find new ways to meet drummers' needs. It's this passionate commitment that led DW to become world-famous for innovation and quality.

The turning point for DW's success came in 1977, when it abandoned the studio shop to purchase Camco Drum Co., including all the machinery, dies and molds to make drums and hardware.

"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," said Lombardi. "I was teaching the son of Camco's owner, Tom Beckman. And he offered to sell me everything but the name of the company."

DW carved a niche for itself with its innovative hardware. Unlike the big Japanese drum companies, which focused on mass production and low labor costs, DW specialized in making high-quality products that were built to last.

Its first successful products were drum pedals used for the bass drum. Lombardi made patented improvements to an existing model that helped set it apart from the competition. The DW double bass pedal revolutionized drumming, and led to the firm's expansion into making drums.

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