Sweetwater Sound facts for kids
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| Corporation | |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters | Fort Wayne, Indiana |
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Key people
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Chuck Surack (founder), President/CEO John Hopkins, COO Jeff Radke, Chief Sales Officer Greg Clark, CFO David Stewart, CMO Doug Wood, Chief Administrative Officer |
| Products | Musical instruments, Recording equipment and accessories |
| Revenue | $805 Million (2019) |
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Number of employees
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1,531 |
Sweetwater is the largest online retailer of musical instruments and pro audio equipment in the United States, based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
History
Chuck Surack established the company in 1979 in Fort Wayne, Indiana so that he could stop being a touring musician. The company originally offered recording services via a remote recording studio in Surack's Volkswagen microbus and a recording studio based out of his home. When the Kurzweil K250 programmable keyboard and sampler was introduced in 1984, Surack became known for his custom K250 sound library and programming skills as well as his upgrade kits. Surack became a Kurzweil dealer, but his clients were asking for advice regarding other products as well. Surack expanded Sweetwater to become a music retailer whose emphasis was pre- and post-sale customer service. By 1990, with 6 employees and annual sales of $6 million, Sweetwater had outgrown Surack's home and moved into its own commercial building, and Sweetwater's growth over the next several years earned it a place on Inc.'s ranking of America's fastest growing companies in 1993, 1994, and 1995.
While the company's website was initially launched in 1995 as an informational site, by 1999 the site offered most of Sweetwater's inventory for purchase online. Electronic Musician included sweetwater.com as one of nine essential online information resources for a musician. In addition to its music store, Sweetwater has several publications, including the ProGear Directory, Worship Sound Pro, and Music Educators Technology Resource., and a blog, inSync.
In 2009, Sweetwater was given the LEED Platinum Award by the U.S. Green Building Council, for the "environmentally friendly" construction and management of the company's corporate headquarters. Music Inc. named Sweetwater "Retailer of the Year" in 2012 and again in 2020.
Campus
Sweetwater's campus includes its corporate offices and distribution center, along with recording studios, two performance venues, a music academy, a retail store, and numerous customer and employee amenities.
In 2006, with 220 employees and continued business growth, Sweetwater commissioned MSKTD & Associates, Inc. to design and master plan a new 44-acre corporate campus. The new headquarters, consisting of corporate offices, a distribution center with warehouse, and a retail store, also included the Sweetwater Studios recording studio complex and 250-seat LARES-equipped performance theater, both designed by Russ Berger Design Group. Sweetwater's new facility was certified LEED Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council in April, 2009.
In October 2018, Sweetwater announced another expansion to construct a new warehousing facility. Completed in early 2020, the 480,000-square foot distribution center facilitates product storage and customer order fulfillment, as well as product testing, product photography, offices, staff amenities, and more, while more than doubling the shipping capacity of the Sweetwater's previous warehouse. An additional structure, planned to begin construction in 2020 will house a new 35,000-square-foot conference center and banquet hall with room for up to 1,000 people. This new addition to the company's campus will accommodate continuing education sessions for employees. The facility will also be available for members of the community to use for other events.
Philanthropy
Sweetwater contributes to more than 600 nonprofit organizations annually, including charitable donations to Fort Wayne Community Schools, Arts United of Fort Wayne, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, Easter Seals ARC of Northeast Indiana, and the Voices of Unity Youth Choir.
