Company history

The beginning in 1975
For two centuries, the scores and books on music of the Schott publishing programme had been delivered directly from the publisher's head office in downtown Mainz to customers throughout the world. Gradually, the publishing house became more and more successful and the publishing catalogue more and more comprehensive so that in the early 1970s the management looked for premises that would be suitable for setting up a distribution centre. Eventually, an area of land was purchased in the then newly developed industrial park of Mainz-Hechtsheim which was large enough to allow space for future expansion. In the mean time, the distribution centre not only delivered Schott products but, under the name of 'SMD – Schott Music Distribution', also offered its services to other publisher partners.


The enlagerment of the distribution facilities in the Nineties and Modernisation at the turn of millennium
In the 1990s, the development of the music distribution centre even sped up so that it was necessary to enlarge the distribution facilities by a pallet high-bay warehouse as well as expand the storage area and reorganise the dispatch department.
At the beginning of the new millennium, the management took the decision, despite the difficult macroeconomic situation, to continue investing in the expansion of the music distribution centre. Offices were modernised, the façade of the building redesigned, and major investments made in modern conveyor systems and trendsetting warehouse and dispatch logistics. To ensure that our business partners and customers can easily reach our customer service team, a call centre has been set up. All these investments had become necessary for us to be able to provide the best possible service to our business partners and customers.


Integration of MDS international in 2003
In mid-2003 the independent distribution centre of 'MDS International' in Ashford/GB, south of London, was closed down, except for the customer service office, and incorporated in Mainz so that the central distribution centre in Mainz now supplies customers throughout the world. The successful course of expansion and the acquisition of new business partners led to the opening of another warehouse at the end of 2004.


SMD becomes mds (2004) and Certification in 2007
On 1 July 2004 the distribution centre was hived off as an independent limited liability company under the name of 'mds – music distribution services' and placed in the market with an aggressive growth strategy. Further catalogues of publishers from home and abroad are welcome and, in addition to the goods on commission from our publisher partners, other product lines such as music accessories, audio books, manuscript paper and CDs are distributed by mds as well in the mean time.
To fulfil our demands for the continuous and lasting improvement of quality, a quality management system was implemented at the beginning of 2007 and certified by DEKRA according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000 in March 2007.