Of interest to Euph and E flat players

[Alex C]

Schreiber/york is apparently in bankruptcy.

http://pro-music-news.com/html/11/e30423ke.htm" target="_blank

[pgym]

YYYYYYAAAAAWWWWWNNNNN.

[Alex C]

Yawn, I understand. The underlying message is scary, though. And if Schrieber/York went under, how close are other Euph and E-flat manufacturers?

Can you buy a new HIrsbrunner now?

[pgym]

The thing is, Schreiber-Keilwerth, according to their publically available tax filing for the year ending Dec 31, 2005, they were already carrying liabilities of €15.9 million in excess of assets, and that was before they launched York, and their filing for the calendar year ending Dec 31, 2008 shows net losses for the entire operation of €3.2 million on sales of €20 million, and accumulated excess liabilities in excess of €22 million.

Net/net, it looks like S-K has been living on borrowed time since well before the economic downturn and the cannibalization of the a not insignificant portion of the entry level market by Chinese mfgs. Add to that their decision not to replace Sonaré Winds as their US distributor after Sonaré dropped them in 2008, and I'm skeptical that they're a meaningful bellwether for the health of other European mfgs.

Re: HB - as reported by several Swiss and Dutch correspondants earlier this year, HB was bought, lock, stock and barrel, by Adams.

New HBs continue to be http://www.adams-music.com/nl/blaasinst ... d for sale in Europe. While Custom Music's loss of exclusive NA distribution rights means that no one in the US is currently stocking HBs (though Steve Ferguson (Hornguys.com) reported that he's inquired about stocking HBs), in theory, the absence of an exclusive right means that any vendor could order an HB direct from Adams.

[Alex C]

Re: HB - as reported by several Swiss and Dutch correspondants earlier this year, HB was bought, lock, stock and barrel, by Adams.

Thanks for the good info on K-S!

In spite of all of the assurances we got that Hirsbrunner was still going to make instruments, it appears that they will not. I was told months ago that Hirsbruner sold all of the tooling (they made surprisingly little in-house) to Adams but retained the name. It would seem as if Hirsbrunner instruments would have to be sold under another name.

Additionally, I have a good source which tells me that Adams Percussion makes nothing in Europe anymore. Everything is made in China. The Hirsbrunner family had a little trick that they used on every instrument before they shipped it out. I don't think that's going to be happening again.

[Ferguson]

Hirsbrunner still offers limited production of instruments. Peter is making a tuba for me now. Adams makes the parts for him, which they plan to use for their own tubas as well. York instruments are also in limited production, though there is no US importer. Any dealer can order directly from York/Schreiber/Keilworth, though I don't know how stable they are at the moment. I may wait and see.

Ferguson

[jacojdm]

In the past year, Buffet has stopped using Schreiber to manufacture its student line wood clarinets, and moved production of these instruments to France.
There is another American (sort of) company that is importing the former E-11 from Schreiber under its own brand and model.

[iiipopes]

Evidently, out in cyberspace somewhere, is a person who has come into contact with York, or has heard about the reorganization, and tries to spam boards with "Anybody have trouble with their York..." threads. Be watchful and don't let this guy have any quarter. He was in and taken out of Brass-forum.co.uk so fast I didn't even have time to catch the avatar.

[pgym]

Evidently, out in cyberspace somewhere, is a person who has come into contact with York, or has heard about the reorganization, and tries to spam boards with "Anybody have trouble with their York..." threads. Be watchful and don't let this guy have any quarter. He was in and taken out of Brass-forum.co.uk so fast I didn't even have time to catch the avatar.

He was also on themouthpiece.com.

[pgym]

The latest news out of K-S is not good: 30 more jobs cut (on top of 70 in May, totalling 1/3 of the workforce), no bank financing, no prospective buyer, no production against future sales. The court-appointed administrator expects to decide K-S's fate at the end of July/beginning of Aug. The last sentence may be an indication of which way the administrator is leaning:

“A production enterprise cannot be continued permanently in insolvency”, stressed Tobias Hoefer.