Pearl River (company)

Pearl River is a piano company started in 1956 in Guangzhou, China, and lays claim to the largest piano factory in the world. Pearl River is also the fastest-growing company in the United States and Canada, with over 300 dealers and growing. [http://www.pearlriverusa.com/pr_story.html"Pearl River"] Official Site of Pearl River Pianos. Retrieved on September 29 2007.]

Production/Materials

Pearl River has the ability to produce over 100,000 pianos a year, while exporting them to over 80 countries.

World's Largest Piano Manufacturer

Pearl River is the world's largest piano manufacturer and makes the world's best-selling pianos. Since 1956, Pearl River Piano has operated several factories in Guangzhou, China, including the world's largest piano factory. Recently a new state of the art woodworking facility has been completed to prepare the company for the next generation of manufacturing.

Core Building Features

Pearl River pianos feature hardwood rims, sand-cast plates, and lower tension scales, features found on the world's best pianos such as Steinway, Bösendorfer and almost all other top tier pianos. These features are considered to be important to protecting the long-term durability of the piano's tone, which can be affected over a period of time by changes to the soundboard's "crown", a problem which is thought to occur more rapidly on pianos that do not have these core features,

International Organisation for Standardisation ISO 9001 Certification

Pearl River Pianos have been awarded ISO 9001 for its complete line of grand and vertical pianos, including all parts and components. ISO 9001 Certification is awarded by an independent auditing organization following a lengthy audit of quality systems ranging from the procurement of raw materials to manufacturing systems, assembly procedures, and customer service. Pearl River was the first piano company in China to receive this independent certification of quality..

International Organisation for Standardisation ISO 14001 Certification

Pearl River also recently was awarded ISO 14001, which is similar, but relates to the environmental standards practiced by the Company. Pearl River is again the first manufacturer in China to receive this award.

Pearl River Name

Pearl River was not a "known" name in the United States until recent years. This is because Pearl River has only had company-owned US distribution since 2000. Since then Pearl River's US sales have grown quickly and today Pearl River enjoys a large market share of the under-$15,000 US piano market. Pearl River was the first Chinese piano company to market pianos in the United States under its own company name, and continues to be one of only two or three that do.

Other companies' Chinese pianos are generally sold in the United States under deceased American piano names, licensed by the distributors or the companies themselves. These are known as "stenciled" pianos. Some examples of Chinese pianos bearing non Chinese piano company names are: Baldwin (formerly Hamilton), George Steck, Falcone, Hobart Cable, Story & Clark, Hallet & Davis, Steigerman, Heintzman, and many others.

Ritmuller

The company also markets another brand in the USA: Ritmuller brand pianos sport upgraded cabinetry, a different plate, upgraded felt and several different scale designs. Both product lines are marketed in the United States by authorized retail piano stores.

Other Instruments

Pearl River is also one of the world's largest guitar and violin manufacturers, and is a primary supplier for the popular "First Act" brand of guitars commonly found at Target stores among others. The company also sells drums, brass and woodwind instruments around the world.

Pearl River selected by the USA's 3 largest piano retailers

The three largest retail piano companies in the US have selected Pearl River as their OEM house brand supplier: Jordan Kitts, Sherman Clay, and Schmitt Music. These three retail chains use their own brand name (Henry F Miller, Christifori) on the front of the pianos and in a couple of isolated cases feature slightly different specifications than the Pearl River brand models distributed by Pearl River Piano Group America, based in Ontario, CA.

Pearl River Connection with Yamaha & Steinway

=The Yamaha Connection=Yamaha formed a joint venture with Pearl River in 1995 to establish a factory to build pianos for the Chinese market. This factory is located east of Guangzhou in an 'economic development zone,' approximately 35 miles from the Pearl River factory.

This factory produced two models for the Pearl River Piano company: The UP125M1, and the Ritmuller UP126R. Ritmuller is a brand name belonging to Pearl River. Ritmuller brand pianos sport upgraded cabinetry, a different plate, upgraded felt and several different scale designs. Both Product Lines are marketed in the United States by retail piano stores.

The former "Yamaha/Pearl River Joint Venture Factory" is now completely owned by Pearl River, after Pearl River bought out Yamaha's interest in it.

The Steinway Connection

Pearl River also manufactures three models for Steinway's "Essex" brand piano line, including two grand pianos and one vertical. Steinway issued a press release:

References