Historic piano maker puts lid on UK base

Published on Friday 30 October 2009 21:21

ONE of the UK's last remaining piano manufacturers closed its doors for the final time yesterday.

Kemble and Co, which has been making pianos in this country for nearly a century, will see production transferred to Asia.

The last British-made Kemble piano was produced this week in the company's Milton Keynes factory.

Yamaha Corporation, which took over the family business in 1986, will move production of Kemble pianos to its large-scale factories in Indonesia and Japan.

The British factory's 96 employees were given notice of redundancy in April, Yamaha said.

Kemble and Co's joint managing director Brian Kemble, grandson of the company's founder, said: "Yamaha can achieve economies of scale we just can't get near. It's a sad day, obviously."