PIANOS AND PRICES.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 June 1920, Page 10

PIANOS AND PRICES.

j WORKERS AND MANAGEMENT. The English Press has lately devoted much space to the question of the cost of production of the English piano. The old-established firm of John Brimsmpad and Sons, Ltd., created a sensation by issuing a notice of dismissal to its 300 employees on the grounds that the works and the business was being closed. There was no dispute as to wages, but the firm apparently saw nothing but bankruptcy ahead if it continued the business of piano manufacturing on present lines. The managing director said:

Output, instead of rising, lias steadily fallen, and whereas before the war it took less than six men to complete a piano, and in 1918 12 men, today the rate of production means 26 men to a piano, and it is still falling . . . Brimsmeads are actually paying more in wages alone, on their reduced output than the price they are able to sell their pianos at. The factory manager, in a circular to the employees, expressed the "intense regret at being compelled to close the factory." He pointed out that the factory wages alone per piano exceeded the selling price. "The cost of polishing only," said the manager, "is approximately equal to the pre-war prime cost of the completed piano, including materials." Some of the employees had been with the firm for over 40 years, and the firm had a reputation as a good employer. Before the war 1000 Brimsmead pianos were exported every year, and some time ago the firm offered a production bonus of £30,000 a year to their workers.

Tha managing director stressed the fact that it cost "in labor alone to polish a piano as much as the completed instrument, labor, and material did in 1913-14." There was no question of competition—German or otherwise—being responsible for the present state of affairs. If the men had only worked as hard as they did before the war the firm could have carried on at a profit. In 1914 baby grands were sold at £B4. The present pricewwaffs ff £22o—and the firm lost money on each sale. Two 'very lengthy conferences, were held with the workers, and it was eventually agreed that the works were to be continued "on probation." It was officially stated that the employees were in full co-operation with the company, and were confident of the ability of both to achieve the desired results.

In the course of his original official statement, the managing director of Brimsmeads stated that "he had practical evidence that the firm had the sympathy of their fellow piano manufacturers." It was more than surprising, therefore, to find that several leading piano manufacturers combated the Brimsmead figures. A joint letter was issued by the limited company of Broadwood and Sons, Chappell Pianos, Collard and Collard, J. B. Cramer and Co, Sir Herbert Marshall and Sons, and the Aolian Company. One paragraph will indicate the tenor of the letter: — It is stated that 28 men are now required to do the work of six before the war, and the inference made is that this is more or less general. We beg to say that in none of our factories is such a number even approximately approached. It lias also been stated that to polish a piano costs as much to-day as the prime cost of the completed instrument before the war. As regards our factories, such a statement bears no relation whatever to the actual fact.

The reply of Brimsrmead's managing director was that it was a very extraordinary thing that their fellow manufacturers should try to prejudice the public mind "a 8 to whether the management or the workers are to blame for the low production on the very morning of our meeting with the deputation." In his view their fellow manufacturers had tried them, found them guilty, and hanged them before the trial.