Music industry manufacturer seeks to regain pre-pandemic gust of growth

Company: Bari Woodwinds manufactures woodwind instrument mouthpieces made from hard rubber and metal, in addition to a line of synthetic reeds. Its products are used for B-flat clarinets, bass clarinets and the soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophone. Business partners Ron Van Ostenbridge and Gary Spears have worked together at the firm since 2004, when it was part of a larger instrument accessories business run by the Cavanaugh family in Sarasota. Van Ostenbridge and Spears acquired the Bari Woodwinds part of the company in 2016 and moved it to a 5,000-square-foot facility in Palmetto, north Manatee County.   

Product: The company’s lines of reeds and mouthpieces — designed to be easy to blow, stable and produce resonant sound — are well received in the sometimes finicky musician marketplace. Some 50 professional musicians, from Tampa to California and Ireland to Argentina, are listed as official Bari woodwinds endorsers on the firm’s website, for example. Beyond celebrity testimonials, about 60% of the firm’s business is in schools, and it also sells to dealers and music stores, with a global customer base. “Canada is actually a big customer,” says Van Ostenbridge, the CEO and managing partner, “although everything there has been shut down now [from the pandemic].”