Pearl River Group At 60

The world’s largest piano supplier looks towards the future.

The Pearl River Piano Group has been on something of a winning streak for the past many years – most recently the company was the recipient of the 2015 MMR Dealers’ Choice Award for “Acoustic Piano Line of the Year,” as voted upon by hundreds of musical instrument retailers.

And it’s not terribly surprising…

Founded in 1956 in Guangzhou, China, Pearl River now produces in excess of 125,000 pianos each year, making it the world’s largest piano manufacturer. With a work force of over 2,000 skilled workers Pearl River fulfills orders for OEM clients and their other brands Ritmüller, and Kayserberg – each of which has established themselves as leaders in their respective product categories, stateside.

New Facility, Expanded Capabilities

Getting a kick-start from a successful IPO in 2012, the formerly government-owned company recently completed construction of a new, state-of-the-art, 1.2-million-sq.-ft. factory. The entire operation will transition to the complex over the next five years. The factory combines traditional craftsmanship with advanced technology and precise CNC digital machinery. This complies with European high- level technology and process standards. To say the least it is well-organized, systematic, environmental, and clean.

“Clean” is no understatement. It’d be fair to characterize Pearl River Piano as having jumped aboard the “green” movement with both feet. The company’s Guangzhou factory received ISO 14001 certification in July of 2007 and has been actively pursuing environmentally sound practices ever since.

Experience, Continued Improvements, and Pride

While already a successful piano supplier, in 2009 Pearl River Group stepped up their game to another level entirely, by adding a significant player to their team.

Mr. Stephen Mohler, a senior piano technician from Switzerland, is now head of Pearl River’s quality control. This has lead to many new models being introduced, while older models have been reviewed and modified.

In fact, the technical team of Pearl River Piano has been trained by the European piano masters and experts for the past 10 years. The essential design concept, the rigorous QC system, the traditional craftsmanship, and the joy of making pianos has been inherited by the entire Pearl River technical team. Workers are, on average, 40 years old and boast over 15 years of experience in piano craftsmanship. In other words, the professional team of Pearl River Piano employees under the guidance of Mohler and the other Europen masters is continually growing and improving.

June Wang, Pearl River Piano’s director of foreign trading, states, “Our employees love piano craftsmanship, work with dedication and experience, and are proud of Pearl River Piano. Some of the workers’ families have been working for several generations at the company over the past 60 years!”

Celebrating a Milestone and a New Alliance

After marking a major anniversary last year (30 years in North America), Pearl River Group in 2016 now celebrates six decades in existence as an organization – and the company not only has come a long, long way since having 55 employees in a modest factory back in 1956, but has big plans for the coming year.

Wang went on to say, “Winning the 2015 Dealers’ Choice Award this past December was a wonderful way to jumpstart our 60th anniversary in 2016.” We’d like to sincerely thank our dealers, our staff, our customers, and our friends who kept supporting to us these past decades. We are proud of what we’ve achieved and have confidence in what we’ll achieve in the future.”

Additionally, in late January of this year, German piano manufacturer Schimmel entered into a strategic alliance with Pearl River Piano Group. “As a renowned international brand, Schimmel will become a new member within the brands of Pearl River,” says Li Jian Ning, general manager of Pearl River. “We will strengthen the production facilities in Germany and use the capital advantages as a public company to assure Schimmel’s continued development, realizing complementary advantages of both companies for all aspects including brand, marketing, and other resources.”

Pearl River Piano Group in America

Dave Campbell Shares His Experiences with the Company

MMR reached out to respected, and now retired, veteran of the American Piano Manufacturing Industry (VP & general manager, Currier Piano Co; president & CEO, Aeolian American Co; VP Pratt Reed Corp; president of Sohmer Pianos), Dave Campbell, for his thoughts on Pearl River:

My association with Pearl River began in 2000 when I was hired to be a manufacturing consultant at the factory in Guangzhou. For the next ten years I shuttled back and forth from the U.S. and China. Along with the manufacturing work I did, at various times I was U.S. service manager and supported the marketing effort in the U.S. from the technical aspect.

During my time, the company made giant leaps in updating production equipment as in digitally controlled machinery, high frequency gluing equipment, and, most important, acclimatizing all manufacturing space from the point of view of controlling the humidity in the buildings. Guangzhou is in southern China and the climate is sub tropical. The piano has many components that are various species of wood, which must be cured correctly at point of manufacture in order to be stable in the various countries around the world to which Pearl River pianos are shipped. Millions of dollars were spent achieving this goal including building an individual wood processing factory which is climate controlled. This effort has enabled Pearl River products to be functional and long-lasting around the world.

I am familiar with all the buildings that are currently in use. One interesting fact is the original building that goes back 50 plus years is still in use and produces sub-assemblies. Two separate foundries supply piano plates off site, another off-site location makes grand piano rims and the 30-acre lumber yard is off site. The company buys logs and rough lumber and does all the processing from a lumber mill that saws logs to drying kilns that season the wood before using it to build pianos. There is a huge investment in the inventory of wood that it takes to manufacture 100,000 pianos a year. I have estimated that the wood yard has a three-year supply of lumber aging, awaiting processing into pianos.

Pearl River factories employ the latest digital controlled machinery, high frequency gluing techniques, curtain coating finishing lines and all work space is environmentally controlled to assure the materials used are assembled to succeed in a world wide market.

The addition of Mr. Mohler and the other European piano masters and experts is another example of Pearl River’s use of consultants from around the world in order to design and produce the best possible pianos for their customers. They have updated and created scales to meet and exceed the demands of the world market. They were instrumental in creating a new brand name and continues to monitor the application of their designs at the factory. Especially, Mr. Mohler brings field experience as a technician for training of the work force and applying his experience for technical quality control. The influence of both of these individuals, as well as the consultants that came before them, has allowed Pearl River to become the largest piano manufacturer in the world with a proven history of quality.