Many of you have been asking about our showroom plans so we are pleased to provide you with an update. The economics of piano retailing haven’t changed and we still plan to move our primary piano operation out of the city but for a number of reasons this has now been pushed back until Q1 of 2027. So no need to update your directions just yet! With other developments we are now looking for a smaller location in the city to maintain the growing demand for small instruments, services, accessories, music and more.
With the recent closure of our friends at Balaams Music in Bury St Edmunds (my home town), we represent one of the last locations in the East of England where you can try a selection of pianos, violins, cellos, and more, browse music, or get local advice and support. We’re pleased to announce a number of projects we’re working on to support you, your students, and the musical community: -
Expanding our incredibly popular rental schemes with a delivery and collection service set to launch later in the summer aiming to tackle the spread of ultra-low cost instruments we’ve seen flood the market, instead providing quality instruments built to last, properly set up, and repairable.
Following on from this, we will be launching our instrument “Health Checks” very soon. A free service where students can book with one of our team who will assess any instrument whether bought online, found in an attic, or even bought from a charity shop.
We consistently get asked for list of teachers, the complaint being that online lists are often out of date. We know many of you receive students from our lists and reciprocally students come to us for instruments, rentals and more but we believe we can do much more to expand this. We plan not just to update our list but develop a new directory system for this, aiming to better connect parents and students searching with local teachers.
We have recently reopened our Guitar Department in the basement of our showroom, providing a local offering that has been so lacking since the closure of PMT last summer. We have a growing selection of acoustic, classical, electric, and bass guitars along with accessories and services.
Our selection of sheet music has been brought upstairs with our pianos and is available to browse in store and online. We’re continue to expand our selection, adding the new ABRSM syllabus and have a great launch offer for you and your students.
Don’t forget stock levels are live on the website and you or your students can click and collect if they’re in town, alternatively we now have a very efficient postal service.
Our plan is to run another teacher event around the start of term with more details to follow. We will reach out to a few of you to gauge interest and also some appropriate dates.
Thank you, as ever, for your continued support. We hope those of you going away enjoy a good break and we look forward to seeing you again soon.
Simon