Tally

[John Lillico, RPT]

Clyde,

When I jumped back on the list a few days ago, I was thinking about my own year and how it might compare with other techs who do primarily in-home service and who are independent of dealers.

I gave 395 pianos 470 services in 2000. That's up about 30% over 1999. I've been rebuilding this once idle service business since 1994.

Without my newly acquired college account, Heintzman would still remain my most tuned make after all these years. My most popular brands of 2000 are

Yamaha 48,    (31 at a local college)
Heintzman 32,
Kawai 21,       (9 at a local college)
Samick 18,
Mason & Risch 18, 
Gerhard Heintzman 17,
Sherlock Manning 16,
Weber 12,
Baldwin 11,
Henry Herbert 11,
Young Chang 11,
Anonymous (no names) 8. 

When I did a most popular list at the end of 1997 based on a five year period, the percentage rankings (with todays percentages) were

Heintzman 11.7%,             (8.1%)
Yamaha 6.5%,                  (12.2%)
Mason & Risch 6.3%,         (4.6%)
Young Chang 4.8%,           (2.8%)
Samick 4.6%,                     (4.6%)
Kawai 4.5%,                       (5.3%)
Sherlock Manning 3.8%,    (4.1%)
Baldwin 2.8%,                    (2.8%)
Lesage 2.4%,                      (1.5%)
Weber 2.4%,                       (3.0%)
Nordheimer 2.3%,              (1.0%)
Gerhard Heintzman 2.2%  (4.3%)

I no longer retail, rent or rebuild.... just tune, tune, tune. My goal for 2001 is to increase the unit numbers from 470 to 550 without dealer work or a second institution. This is a fairly affluent area and growing quickly. One of my clients has three gates laneways and 19 fully equipped washrooms. Now, isn't that effluence, or what?

Thanks for sharing.

John Lillico, RPT
Oakville, ON