Hi Group,

This was posted by the moderator of the V Accordion Forum on Yohoo! He lives in the UK.

"A few hours ago the news broke that the Roland factory in Italy is in the hands of the Receivers. At the moment, it is not at all clear what the position will be as regards support, etc for the V-Accordions and other instruments. Our best wishes for the future go out to the 150 employees. More news as it becomes available."

No wonder it took almost 3 months for my new FR-8X to arrive.

Don P

The link:
Roland Corporation closes the establishment of Acquaviva

Translation from Italian:

ACQUAVIVA PICENA - The Roland Corporation Japan on the board of directors of today has acted the liquidation of the Roland
Europe'Spa in Acquaviva Picena, which is owner to one hundred per cent. The reasons for this difficult decision are due to a drastic reduction of the costs and necessary reorganization due to a negative balance of a multinational that lasts for some years. In its restructuring plan in the medium term it plans to increase production efficiency by centralizing the latter in the East. The news certainly weighs down an already difficult employment situation of the Piceno and also at the establishments of Acquaviva of the Roland currently employs 150 employees.

Maybe they are moving operations to China? It usually all comes down to labor costs.

Sad news for those workers, to be sure.

Ian

Shades of GeneralMusic's demise!

I think they have had a cash-flow problem for sometime! According to my dealer RolandUS was having to pay cash for the delivery of each FR-8X accordion. Who knows!

Ouch...

Do Roland Italy manufacture the arrangers at the same plant? My label says RolandEurope as manufacturers, and doesn't specify where in Italy it is made.

Interesting. I wonder what the person who spends most of his time in the Tyros threads trashing the Tyros would be saying if this thread was about Yamaha going into receivership?

Yes Diki,
Roland Europe is the designer and manufacturer of VAccordion and BK line (btw some bk cheap models are already produced in China)
Roland Italy instead is the distributor of Roland Japan in Italy (no design, no production).
probably bk an VAccordion will move to Japanese engineers and Chinese production.

the news is about Roland Europe, not Roland italy.
it's up to you to judge the news.
bye

It's only a little iceberg....

You need to up your comprehension skills. This is NOT about Roland going into receivership. This is merely their Italian manufacturing plant (is this all of them or just the one plant?) going down, and in all likelihood production is going to be shifted to China.

And, if this happened to Yamaha's arranger plants in any non-Chinese location, I would be no more exulting this than I am Roland.

Perhaps you need to read what I post with a little more accuracy and a little less heat under the collar. I 'criticize' (you can substitute 'trash' if you want to invent an issue that doesn't exist, for whatever reasons you wish to become outraged) certain aspects of Yamaha's. I guess I need to start using larger fonts, bold and ALL FRIGGIN' CAPS to get some of you low attention span readers to notice where I praise OTHER elements of Yamaha arrangers.

Seems like you notice the least criticism and then the blood-flow shuts off above the neck!

I'm not sure either whether there is only this one plant of Roland Europe in Italy. According to this SOS article about the Roland history, there were five plants in Italy in 2005 (see section "Siel & Roland Europe"):
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan05/articles/roland.htm

However, the bad news is that not only this factory, but the company headquarters of Roland Europe S.P.A. are also based in Acquaviva Picena, so I fear the complete subsidiary is being dissolved.
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=8355130

Well, it does sound very serious, and I'm sure none of us here would want to see any keyboard manufacturer or factory be dissolved. It's the competition between them that provides we users with better products, and the loss of any one, or part of one, will surely affect things in a negative way.

Ian

Roland fans...relax..this has been in the works for a few years....there is good news coming..

You mean they are finally going to release a worthy G-70 successor?

Ian

Someone needs to get a life.

Your larger, bolder, CAP-ER eloquence speaks so well of you:
"I guess I need to start using larger fonts, bold and ALL FRIGGIN' CAPS to get some of you low attention span readers to notice where I praise OTHER elements of Yamaha arrangers."

Did you forget your meds?

So, unfortunately it's clear, the entire company Roland Europe is in liquidation. IMHO, This affects the BK-9 and BK-7m.

@brooster: I think your post is absolutely unacceptable for any internet forum. I hope an administrator will do something about it.

Before we get too nervous we might read the Notice of Dissolution on the Roland corporate web site:

Here is a short quote:

"After the dissolution and liquidation of subsidiary, the development and production will be transferred to the other locations within the Group and its businesses will be continued."

http://www.roland.com/ir/pdf/2013/20131108_3.pdf

Very interesting! Yesterday I couldn't find anything official from Roland.com yet. So, at least the arranger line will obviously be continued. It would almost have been an act of desperation to stop the BK-9 so shortly after its introduction...

Changed my mind about the comment I made and can't delete.
DonM

My wife does that all the time!

Gary

Well, I thought Brooster was merely quoting, and was not out of line. But I'm not going to mention it.
DonM

I've kept the original packaging of my Roland BK-7m and found something interesting written on it: It says "Roland Europe SPA, Acquaviva Picenta", but underneath "Made in China".
So the BK-7m was only developed in Italy, but not manufactured there.

for whom can be interested, a facebook group has been created from Roland Europe employes

facebook group

just to understand better the situation from people who are directly involved

I always thought Roland arranger (and related products) were at least assembled in Italy, as well as developed there.

In any case, the situation does appear very serious, especially for the 150 workers.

Ian

in the last decade, only Prelude and GW8 were developed by Roland Japan R&D,
E-09 was developed in Italy and assembled by Roland Japan in China...

Yamaha have already moved much of their production to China. It didn't appear to put a crimp in THEIR sales or position (and I doubt you can find a post by me saying much at ALL about it).

Why should Roland doing the same thing worry anyone? These are huge multi-national corporations. And many of them have been pulling factories from all over Europe and offshoring the jobs to China.

Now, I've got an entirely different opinion about the whole thing if you put it in the larger picture of low end and middle end jobs being shipped wholesale to the Republic of Cheap Labor so that fat corporations can make products cheaper and try to sell them at low prices to people who no longer have a job to buy them, all to fatten up the dividends to the wealthy few who have shares in the company, but that's got nothing to do with whether its a keyboard company or a maker of bubble wrap...

Brooster's strange posts seem to be far more designed to bait than actually refer to what has happened. One only has to look at his juxtaposition of trying to equate one plant in Europe getting closed and moved offshore to Yamaha closing down entirely, and you realize how desperate (or uncomprehending) he is to start a fight.

Tell you what, Broo... When Yamaha actually DO close down, let's revisit this storm in a teacup. In the meantime, keep up those English lessons. Basic Comprehension 101 could do with a do-over.

That explains why the the sounds of the GW8 main presets are very different from the E/BK series as they are taken from the SonicCell (and thus mostly Fantom X). Obviously, the samples used by Roland Japan and Roland Europe were kept separated to a certain degree (e.g. good saxophones present in the Italian arrangers but missing in Fantom X, SonicCell, GW8). When I got the BK-7, I was really surprised about the good saxophones, which I had even missed in the SRX series.

Korg also has arranger operations in Italy...would they be considering off-shoring their factories/operations to China as well?

Ian

What company ISN'T considering offshoring to China these days... especially any in the electronics field..?

You know, on the whole, I am seeing more of a fair degree of 'glee' about the whole Roland issue from Yamaha owners than I ever recall from others when Yamaha closed down plants and shifted production to China.

But, given the bubble that they like to live in, I can see the reason. If legitimate criticism of failings in Yamaha products upsets you, why not chortle about a move you have already made yourselves? You know, should you want to distract from those legitimate complaints...

I honestly can't see where you see "glee" amongst the posts...it's very sad to see people lose jobs.

This isn't the first time Roland has been in a bit of a jam...they should be able to get out okay.

Ian

Please!

Thing is, no-one here with half a brain takes seriously the comparison of two arrangers well over $2500 apart in price.

If something sinks your flagship, the NEXT boat in your fleet automatically becomes that. Whether it is a cruiser or a dinghy. But only a fool compares a battleship with a dinghy. I suppose, if you want to be pedantic about it, that yes, the BK-9 is Roland's TOTL. But if it is virtually the same price as most other line's MOTL offering, do you make an honest comparison with those, or simply be a fool and still try to put it up there with arrangers selling for $1500-2000 more?

To be quite frank, I am getting a bit sick of how asinine this argument is. If the most expensive car Hyundai make is priced lower than the cheapest Ferrari, do you even TRY to make a comparison? Or let's try comparing the most expensive Hyundai with the most expensive Lexus? No, anyone not a fool compares cars at the SAME price point.

Trouble is, do that with Yamaha and Roland arrangers, and the Yamaha fans have a FAR smaller advantage (if any). So, I guess to bolster the fragile corporate ego, you want to make a $2000 arranger go head to head with your $5000 one. We're not buying it, Ian.

Ramble on bro!

as far as I know, Korg has an R&D depertment in Italy, non production plans.
So probaly their products are already produced in China....
but I can be wrong, especially for TOTL models...

As cogent a post as you have yet made...

Maybe you can try even less, and simply use emoticons to make your next 'point'?

To Quote Diki:

"Please! Thing is, no-one here with half a brain takes seriously the comparison of two arrangers well over $2500 apart in price."

In one of the Tyros threads you posted over and over again trying to do just that.
Do you realize that you are calling yourself names??

To quote Diki again:

"To be quite frank, I am getting a bit sick of how asinine this argument is."

Asinine indeed.

Diki once more:

"Trouble is, do that with Yamaha and Roland arrangers, and the Yamaha fans have a FAR smaller advantage (if any)."

Civil is better than Sybil.

Diki...you're gonna bust a blood vessel with all this silly ranting.

Time will tell how serious this closure is for Roland.

I don't believe anyone is jumping for joy about the problems Roland, or any manufacturer is having in this lousy, worldwide economy. No one likes to see ANY company go out of business - NO ONE!

Gary

Quote me, Broo. One can easily make a comparison by a MUCH less expensive arranger with one at the highest price bracket. The asininity starts when you want to compare the expensive one with the cheaper...

Brains is better than games.

To quotith Diki:

"Quote me, Broo. One can easily make a comparison by a MUCH less expensive arranger with one at the highest price bracket. The asininity starts when you want to compare the expensive one with the cheaper...

Brains is better than games."

The asininininity ain't the keyboards. It's the hands.

Music is powerful force that should be used for good.

Forums are not.

Korg Italy produce some of their arrangers here, on my Pa3x there's written "Made in Italy" on its plate. I think only the cheapest models (Pa600) are produced in China.

Thanks for clarification!
Maybe they rely on external italian supplier for production & assembling ...
Expensive and complicated products are difficult to delocalizzate in China

This is a copy of an email sent to my V-Accordion Dealer!

Dear Friends,

You are all aware of the closing of our factory in Italy where the V-Accordions are currently produced. We here at Roland US feel deeply for our colleagues who might be affected.

The purpose of this email is to provide you with the relevant facts related to this closing. This will better prepare you to discuss this situation with your present and future customers, and also provide you a better idea as how this may effect your planning. Here are the most relevant questions being asked us:

Q. When will the factory actually close.
A. The current plan is for the factory to remain open and active through March, 2014.

Q: Will production continue on the current products produced at Roland Europe?
A: Yes. Production will continue at Roland Europe for the V-Accordion and other instruments until March, 2014. After that time, production of the V-Accordion will be transferred to an appropriate facility within the Roland family.

Q: Will R&D continue on the V-Accordion?
A: Yes. R&D will continue.

Q: Will product support and parts availability be affected?
A: No. Product support will continue and adequate parts supply is already being planned to support the current products as usual. Roland US support of the V-Accordion is not affected by this closing.

Please be assured that Roland Corporation world-wide and Roland US remain committed to this product category. We appreciate your efforts on our behalf and look forward to continuing our work with you with these exciting instruments!

Should you have other concerns please feel free to contact me directly at my number below.

Sincerely,

Bill

Bill Erlandson
National Sales Manager
Pianos and V-Accordions
ROLAND CORPORATION U.S.
5100 South Eastern Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90040

as I wrote some posts before and
just to avoid wrong information:
up to now, italian R&D team (which developed and designed BK and VAccordion) will be erased as well as production units.

BK and Vaccordion project design will move to Japanese R&D team
(which never developed VAccordion for istance...)
These are the facts...
up to you for your personal consideration...

IMO you are right to be sceptical. I think the complete history of Roland regarding arrangers has been BASED on Roland Europe and began when Roland bought SIEL and changed it to Roland Europe. With accordions it might be even clearer, as this traditional instrument has no "cultural basis" in Japan. For arrangers, there is some hope, as the GW8 and Prelude were developed in Japan. But I certainly see the danger that the arranger section could be abandoned, of course depending on the sales figures. These don't seem to be encouraging for the BK-9 at least (up to now only 4 reviews at the Thomann store, unfortunately I see a lot of BK-9s returned by customers; the BK-7m seems to be quite popular however).