GERMAN PIANOS AGAIN

Wairarapa Age, 31 March 1920, Page 6

GERMAN PIANOS AGAIN

The English piano trade is oxperiI encing the keenest competition froru | Germany, and a good part of 'the business won by Englishmen during the war is going back to Gorman piano manufacturers, i says the Neve.. York Herald. This was evidenced when: the firm- of Brinsmead closed its piano manufacturing, works, throwing 800 men and 'women workers out of employment. It is now possible for Germany to manufacture pianos 50 per cent, cheaper than' can England; " and as a result German pianos are beginning to flood the British market. "We simply cannot continue manufacturing pianos at the present high price of labour and materials and sell them at less than it costs to make them,'J a member of the Brinsmead firm said. He added that the wage paid for, the manufacture of a piano in England was in excess of the selling price. One of the chief reasons for this, he 'the increase in the number of persons employed and the decrease in production. "For each piano produced there now- are twenty ,six employee!, he said, whereas-there were twelve in 1918 and six in 1014, immediately before the war.