Buffet Crampon acquires Shreiber & Keilwerth

Direct from the press release:

Mantes La Ville, August 1, 2010 – Buffet Crampon, top musical instruments manufacturer and  world leader in clarinets is acquiring Schreiber & Keilwerth, the internationally renowned German musical instruments manufacturer. 

The Buffet Crampon Group, headed by Antoine Beaussant, is acquiring all the assets of the German manufacturer Schreiber & Keilwerth, which had filed for insolvency in March 2010.  

I first learned of the Schreiber & Keilwerth insolvency (similar to bankruptcy) issues through the Sax On The Web (SOTW) forums.  Those issues complicated the acquisition of a new Keilwerth after market neck for myself.  Thankfully, through the powers of the internet, I was able to find a store in the Netherlands that had one in stock.  

Needless to say, being an owner of a Buffet clarinet, Schreiber bassoon, and 3 Keilwerth saxophones, I am thrilled that the company will be able to continue to manufacture high quality musical instruments.  Buffet and Schrieber & Keilwerth have actually had a working relationship for years, both being apart of Boosey & Hawkes Group which later became the Music Group.  Hopefully, this will mean Schreiber and Keilwerth instruments will be even more accessible in the states.

According to the press release:

The modern factory at Markneukirchen has a capacity of 50,000 instruments per year.  Its integration into the Buffet Crampon Group will save more than 140 jobs.

And from this article in the UK, Schreiber & Keilwerth were one day away from closing it's doors permanently.

If this agreement hadn’t have been signed, the brass specialist, which has been around for over 80 years, would have had to close down yesterday, according to the insolvency administrator Tobias Hoefer. Other parties were interested in buying the company, but negotiations had failed.