RMG Distribution Ireland has announced the acquisition of the Sony Music distribution facility in Ireland.

RMG, who currently handle a variety of labels including Death Row Records (Dr Dre), Infectious Records (Ash), Perfecto (Paul Oakenfold) and Ritz Records (Daniel O’Donnell), see the development as an opportunity to expand their label roster both internationally and in terms of Irish independent record companies.

Speaking to hotpress, RMG Managing Director Peter Kenny said he "looked forward to the challenge ahead as we aim to provide a first class distribution service. We now control every aspect of the distribution process from picking the tracks to packing the product and then marketing it. In the future we would be looking to expand both multi-nationally in terms of the wholesale end of the business and also locally, offering a one-stop distribution facility for local independent or specialist labels. Because of the variety of labels we already handle we have a lot of experience of marketing different types of music, from trad to dance to indie."

RMG is perhaps most famous as the company who championed David Gray in this country, which led to number one sales positions for White Ladder and Lost Songs with sales in excess of 300,000 for each album. It is acknowledged that the company’s solid support of David Gray was a significant factor in his breaking the Irish market. Peter Kenny stresses the importance of a smooth disribution operation.

"Distribution is an important part of the music industry since no matter how good the music is, if it’s not available in the shops around the country it’s not going to fare as well commercially as it might do. People expect and deserve to have a choice concerning the type of music available to them, and just because you don’t live in a big city or because you might favour a specialist type of music doesn’t mean that you should be disadvantaged. Another factor that I feel we could benefit from is that we can now offer an independent distribution facility that multi-national record companies who might not have a distribution network in this country can avail of. There’s also the fact that we can now service the market that has opened up for newer formats such as DVD. Once again it’s an issue of consumer choice, and the more choice and variety that people have, the more diverse and interesting the music scene is as a result."