Greg Heumann
2936 posts
Jan 12, 2015
9:45 AM
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I believe this is only Hohner U.S., not the parent company in Trossingen. But I do wonder what this spells for Hohner USA:
http://www.harmonycentral.com/news/khs-america-announces-acquisition-of-hohner-inc.-usa
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/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
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Last Edited by Greg Heumann on Jan 12, 2015 9:45 AM
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Sherwin
188 posts
Jan 12, 2015
11:12 AM
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again.......
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Mahcks
26 posts
Jan 12, 2015
11:34 AM
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What happened last time they sold? Should I plan on Hohner being scarce or models discontinuing?
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Philosofy
638 posts
Jan 12, 2015
12:20 PM
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My guess: prices will go up, or they might eliminate some distributors.
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STME58
1158 posts
Jan 12, 2015
1:20 PM
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At least KHS is a music company and may do well with Hohner. In 1995, a Chinese company named Eastman, bought the american William S. Haynes flute company, founded in Boston in 1888 and in 2014 Eastman bought the S.E. Shires Custom Brass instruments, founded in 1995 also in Massachusetts. From what I can see Haynes has not degraded significantly and their top instruments are still made in MA. Time will tell if Shires works out well. The stated plan is to keep Shires production in place keeping most of the personnel including the founder Steve Shires. These are instruments that cost multiple thousands of dollars so the comparison to harmonica may not be valid, but let's hope for the best for Hohner in the US.
KHS History KHS started making harmonicas in 1956 and exported bananas in 1966, so they must know what they are doing :-)
In the 80's I worked in a bike shop and sold KHS bicycles which, from the history I see, may be the same company. The bikes were OK. A good value but not as good as European models at the time.
Last Edited by STME58 on Jan 12, 2015 1:22 PM
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Johncn
82 posts
Jan 12, 2015
4:56 PM
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I think that KHS has had a controlling share of Hohner since 1997 when they began restructuring. The Hohner family only had 9% at that time. I found a reference to it being a hostile takeover, but the translation from German is a little cryptic:
"2014 decided an extraordinarily convened general meeting of Hohner AG complete takeover of the company by KHS daughter HS investment by means of a squeeze-out and thus, the end of the listing."
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/matth-hohner-ag-history/
Last Edited by Johncn on Jan 12, 2015 4:59 PM
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