The Year was 1972.. It was the start of what would become a very exciting time for all of us. Daewoo the industrial giant of shipbuilding, industrial machinary & electronics had decided once again to endeavor on the manufacturing of a new product. It was the musical instrument of ultimate expression. The one that has entertained the worlds elite & its masses for centuries, the piano !
It was a product we knew little about at the time. Its graceful sound & elegance quickly got under our skin. Soon we were attached to it & the piano was of our life.
The Vastness of Daewoo gave us access to unlimited talent and with it an engineering department simply emense. As we began our production we utilized the great mass production technics so diligently layed out by our glorious company. By 1977 our production capacity was 25,000 upright & 4,800 grand pianos. Times were grand and we saw our vision come to life. At the time other Manufacturers were also utilizing mass production as well. The Era was a really mushrooming in the Industry.
Our division continued to grow into the later part of the 80's. As we matured we began to talk about the future. We had come far but during the meetings of those days we rescinded our ultimate goal of heightening ourself into an industry leader like Ibach, Steinway, Bechstein & so many great others has done before. We began by studying these icons. Soon our eyes opened up & we realized the changes necessary to reaching our goal. It would be impartive our efficient mass production methods that has brought us this far would have to be changed.
In 1989 we stunned the industry by selling all our mass production equipment abroad. The company was downsized we were starting over just 22 members of our division remained & all were headed to Europe the center of the worlds musical culture & the finest musical instruments. Our destination postfach Gernany, the home of IBACH.
The Oldest existing manufacturer of pianos in the world.
The company was founded in 1794. For perspective Haydn was
writing his last works while Beethoven was writing his Opus 1 piano trios. Ibach has been notable in the develpment of both piano construction and the piano industry in general. The family owned and managed company has seen to the replacing of the wooden plate to the cast iron plate-to produce a more powerful sound. Carl Rudolph Ibach developed the worlds first vertical piano in 1838 in addition the worlds first tonally successful 40" console piano. Ibach has built a solid reputation in Europe over the last two conturies through fine craftsmanship & supplying pianos to a long list of famous composers and artists such as Wagner, R. Stause, Liszt, Bartok, Schoenberg & Others.
Much of our expertise today can be a credited to our time spent at Ibach. Design, process engincering, wood working, painting production, assembly & the never ending scrutinizing in every step all manifesting itself in quality. Quality that has always been a part of the German industrial landscape.
In 1993 we began production at home under strict contract for Ibach. A good number of the Ibach meisters we had trained under in Germany stayed with us for our beginning production.The German process was quite different from what had been our own. Every step in production intentionally planned out for superb quality. New tooling was utilized in precision execution, compounded by unending regulation & scrutiny.
By 1994 we produced our first piano. A piano of great quality that would get greater as the time went along.
In 1998 we reached a new plateau with the introduction of our New RC SERIES. A further advancing of our Ki Series. We are excited to be now producing some of the worlds truly fine pianos. Pianos that can provide your families future generations pianos to be cherished !
Faithfully Yours
Y.S.KIM
PRESIDENT ROYALE PIANOS
