Roland is closing down roland Europe :(

[Asena]

November 6, 2013
Company Name: Roland Corporation
Representative: Junichi Miki, President and Representative Director
Code Number: 7944
Stock Exchange Listing: 1st Section of Tokyo
Contact: Naoyuki Tamura, Director, General Manager of Corporate Planning Department
Phone: 053-523-3652
Notice of Dissolution and Liquidation of an Overseas Subsidiary
and Posting of Extraordinary Loss
Roland Corporation (the “Company”) hereby announces that it resolved on November 6, 2013 at the Board of
Directors meeting to dissolve Roland Europe S.p.A., the overseas subsidiary of the Company.
The Company also announces that it expects to post extraordinary loss for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014
following dissolution and liquidation of the subsidiary.
1. Reasons for Dissolution and Liquidation
In December 1987, the Company took a stake in a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments based in Italy.
Since then, under the new name of Roland Europe S.p.A., the subsidiary has been positioned as the development
and production base of the Company in Europe, principally manufacturing digital pianos, keyboards and
accordions for the region. Meanwhile, under the initiative to implement structural reform of the Electronic
Musical Instruments Business announced in November last year, the Company has been pressing ahead to
concentrate its digital piano production bases in Indonesia. This initiative executes one of the main assignments
for action as set out in its Medium-term Business Plan announced on May 8, 2013, with the aim of switching its
production policy from “local production for local consumption” to “efficient production through centralization.”
Subsequent to this policy change, the volume of core products at the subsidiary has inevitably declined. In
consideration of this together with sluggish performance over recent years, the Company has judged that it is
difficult for the subsidiary to remain in business and has decided to dissolve it.
2. Outline of subsidiary
(1) Company Name Roland Europe S.p.A.
(2) Domicile Via L Da Vinci, 11 Zona Industriale, 63075 Acquaviva
Picena (AP). ITALY
(3) Representative Alfredo Maroni
(4) Business Summary Development and production of electronic musical instruments
(5) Capital Stock 9,928 thousand euros
(6) Date of Foundation June 3, 1976
(7) Major Shareholders
and % held Roland Corporation 100%
Capital Roland owns 100% of shares in the
company.
Human Directors of Roland concurrently hold
positions in the company.
Business The company engages in trading of the
merchandise.
(8)
Relationship between
listed company and the
company
Related party The company is a consolidated subsidiary
of Roland.
(9) Results of Operations and Financial Condition of the company -Last 3 years-
(unit: EUR 000)
Fiscal Year Fiscal Year Ended
December 31, 2010
Fiscal Year Ended
December 31, 2011
Fiscal Year Ended
December 31, 2012
Net Assets 12,833 11,564 11,132
Total Assets 19,443 19,458 17,379
Net Assets per Share (Euro) 0.67 0.61 0.58
Net Sales 26,606 21,273 24,573
Operating Income 428 (1,361) (318)
Ordinary Income 552 (1,119) (261)
Net Income 301 (1,269) (432)
Net Income per Share 0.02 (0.07) (0.02)
3. Schedule of Dissolution
Resolution of the Board of Directors November 6, 2013
Scheduled Completion of Liquidation The Company will initiate dissolution procedures from today and will
complete required procedures in accordance with local laws and
regulations.
4. Outlook and Posting of Extraordinary Loss
Following the resolution to dissolve and liquidate the subsidiary in question, the Company expects to post
extraordinary loss of between ¥1.5 billion and ¥2.0 billion, subject to the amount of employees’ retirement lump
sum grants, the disposal of noncurrent assets and other expenses to be defined in the near future. The “Notice of
Revision of Financial Results Forecast” released today for the full year of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014
incorporates this extraordinary loss, and the implementation of the above decision is expected to help the
Company increase its annual profit by approximately ¥1.0 billion.
* After the dissolution and liquidation of subsidiary, the development and production will be transferred to the
other locations within the Group and its businesses will be continued.
* Roland expects to post extraordinary loss of approximately ¥2.1 billion to ¥2.6 billion for the fiscal year
ending March 31, 2014 on a non-consolidated basis following dissolution and liquidation of the subsidiary.
* The above forecast values of loss were based on information available at the time of the release of this report.
Therefore actual values, etc. may differ from these forecast values due to various factors.
* The Company will release as soon as possible any important information related to this matter that needs to
be disclosed if it were to arise.

[Sharp]

WOW....!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hugo]

What will this mean in practice?

[Sharp]

What will this mean in practice?

Sadly, a sign of the times.

I'm not sure how the law works on an international level though, but I would imagine shutting down their EU division and liquidating assets is only helpful if the assets are greater than the debts.

Normally this is never the case, so.... who pays the balance.

I hope Roland pull through this change and get back on track with a more deficient manufacturing facility. They are a great company that produce beautiful instruments and I've nothing but best wishes and respect for the staff working for them in these hard times.

Regards
Sharp.

[Asena]

If you,r Name is ROLAND, and if you make a Workstation KB, BK 9 and whit no Sampling on it, THEN i don,t have any thing to ad.
it,s 2013 , we do not need 2 screens, We need One , Good screen, Great styles sounds and more, I dunno who is behind this, but he can't this, Sadly there was nothing from Roland on keyboard front, And nothing we can call NEW, Recykling is not god, Yea it,s god for the mother earth , only

[Ahnyxrik]

Very freaky, Roland has been one of my favorite brands for years, I hope they pull thru!

[Jan1]

I certainly hope Roland will not end up like EMU or Ensoniq, two companies which I still miss.

Still, I feel the cause is not only the bad economy which fails to recover, but also Roland's own lack of response to user requests in the past and certain incomprehensible decisions the company made with regards to working out the design of instruments.
As a result the company received a lot of criticism, perhaps a bit too much considering the merit of some of their instruments. Respectfully criticizing the implementation of features or lack thereof is one thing, but slashing the company's throat over the name 'Jupiter' is completely over the top.

On the other hand, Roland has powerful technology at their disposal, such as the V-synth tech and the SN engine, so it is not as if they are without the resources to come up with a fabulous instrument.
I also think it would be a good idea to pay more attention to the low budget range (just look at the success of KORG's Volca range), and to observe and surf on the wave of trends. At the moment analog is making a comeback with a vengeance, and if Roland were to come up with a low-priced, new analog groove box I'm sure it would be a sales hit.

[Hugo]

Roland have been criticised heavily on some synth forums, but in my view they should instead be praised. The V-Synth is still one of the most interesting synths out there. Everyone should realise this and go get one asap.

[brambos]

Wow.. I didn't see that coming.

I used to love Roland. Their trophy shelf is full of extremely iconic products, such as the TB and TR range, V-Drums, V-synth.. They even more or less invented the Groovebox concept to which we owe the existence of our Electribes.

Some time in the early 2000s they lost their way, in my opinion. Their latest products all looked solid, but somehow lacked a soul and a character. Maybe it's me, but no matter how well-built and thought-through, the stuff simply didn't appeal to me because it just didn't feel fun to use. Making music isn't supposed to feel like dull work.

I hope they survive and this turns out to be a kick in the behind to get with the times and become a leader again.

Good luck, Roland!

[Bald Eagle]

It's not surprising that they are in trouble when you look at the products. The Fantom G had a decent start but they never finished it. The V-Synth was another with good possibilities but was ignored. The Jupiter 80 has great sounds but is misunderstood.

Korg uses a common architecture across many products to create boards with various features at different price points and has been successful. Roland always has something different which is not necessarily bad if implemented properly. Unfortunately Roland does not implement features properly. Just look at the Jupiter 80. Great sounds and marketed as a performance synth but has a useless realtime control surface along with a "unique" architecture, no sequencing, sampling, etc.

They have the technology to create a workstation architecture that could be scaled in the same way that Korg does but it may be too late. But just think if the Fantom, V-Synth, Jupiter 80, Integra were combined into a box with a control surface like OASYS or Prophet 12.

[Timo]

The likes of Korg, Dave Smith, Waldorf etc. have gone back to analog and have re-issued some of their vintage synths.

The company with the greatest ability to add to this, perhaps more than many other, is Roland. They have an enormous back-catalogue of analogue, and the pedigree to go with them.

Imagine if they updated and re-issued even just the 303.

I feel Roland fail to keep up with fashion and demand sometimes. They make innovative products, and then they try and decide how to sell them, like they don't know what to do with them, or how to evolve them further, and then they drop them. Instead they should start with the customer and then work backwards to the product(s).

I wouldn't mind a big, kick-arse set of V-Drums though.

[Sam CA]

Loss of 3 to 5 Billion $???

[Sharp]

Loss of 3 to 5 Billion $???

The symbol looks like Japanese Yen. I think that means your looking at 30 to 50 million USD.

I'm not 100 % sure though.

Regards
Sharp.

[Sam CA]

Loss of 3 to 5 Billion $???

The symbol looks like Japanese Yen. I think that means your looking at 30 to 50 million USD.

I'm not 100 % sure though.

Regards
Sharp.

oh that's right. I was using my cell , so missed the symbols.

[John Hendry]

WOW is right. While this is unexpected the posts here show why it was predictable it would happen to Roland at this point in the timeline and not Korg. Sharp is right unfortunately and there is a reason we see this warning sign. If you rob people too much.... no one will have any money left to buy anything! Dugh... And in Europe everyone gets robbed twice as much as people in the US. Regressive taxation..... when will people learn. And how much will Roland's products cost over there after this? Sad.... still miss my V-drums I was forced to sell for next to nothing.