BECHSTEIN

[Arnold Duin]

Hi Barry
I am Sorry it took so long to answer your question

Bechstein was in big trouble but they managed to get out of it and =
survive.
As a matter of fact when I was zapping around the TV channels, I =
stumbled upon a program of the German tv about investments. In that =
program Mr. Schulze, managing director of Bechstein, tried to =
convince people to buy shares of the company. So it is obvious they =
are in need of money but not dead yet.

Many manufactures seems to have problems surviving nowadays and I am =
getting a little depressed to see that a lot of brands vanish. At =
this time the Gebr. Perzina piano factory in Lenzen Germany is down =
and the R=F6nisch factory (also made piano=B9s for other brands e.g. =
Pfeiffer) applied for a letter of licence (suspension of payment).

Here in Holland dealers have great difficulties selling the more =
expensive piano's so in the end we will be forced to service the =
cheap garbage which isn't a very appealing idea. As a whole the piano =
retail business isn't doing very well: low volume and small profits.

A positive thing however is that most of the time the =
repair/rebuilding budget isn't enough to buy a new piano which =
matches or is better in quality then the piano they already own =
(after rebuilding). So people are more likely to spend some more =
money on repairs and rebuilding. How is the situation in England or =
in the other countries on the list? Maybe we can share depressing =
facts!

greetings Arnold