Striking the perfect chord between passion and business acumen, Iain and Connie Wilson’s journey with IBC-Music proves that doing what you love can lead to multi-million pound success in the world of international musical instruments.
Iain and Connie Wilson are the founders of IBC-Music, a company that helps international musical instrument brands find manufacturing and distribution partners across the world. Set up in 2019, IBC has been able to take advantage of changes in worldwide markets, offering effective sourcing and omni-channel routes to market for many of its clients. Major customers in the USA, Canada and Germany have allowed IBC to grow its business to over £3.5 million turnover in just 3 years.
The inspiration for IBC came from Iain’s lifelong passion for music and guitars. He started playing guitar at a young age and in 1993 founded IBC to help brands develop international sales. Their first customer was Lowden Guitars, a company from Northern Ireland where Iain was born. Despite suffering a serious car accident that forced him to give up golf, Iain’s love of guitars endured and led to the creation of IBC.
One of IBC’s biggest achievements to date was winning the King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2023. Iain had the honour of meeting the King at Buckingham Palace along with other award recipients. Iain said “This Award is a true honour. It’s amazing that a small team from Northern Ireland can offer a world renowned service and build up such an international client base. Our expertise is being used by more and more brands. Tonight the King recognised our international achievements, clients, customers and partners across the world, even mentioning Brexit in our conversation. We expect great additional business to result from this Award too and look forward to continuing to boost the UK economy.”
Looking to the future, IBC’s vision is to be the best UK company for sourcing, marketing and selling musical instruments worldwide. Their goals are to grow the company to £10 million by 2030 and be the leading sourcing agent for musical instruments.
Iain and Connie Wilson are finalists at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2023, known as “The Grammys of Entrepreneurship”, which take place in London’s Grosvenor House on November 20th. To learn more about these inspiring entrepreneurs and IBC-Music, visit www.IBC-music.com.
