Nord User Forum

[Schorsch]

I got to thinking today about Clavia/Nord's commitment to provide free sound library downloads for life. It's a fantastic selling point, and one of the reasons I bought my NP4. However, I also remember Radio Shack, Toys "R" Us, Oldsmobile, A&P grocery stores and Woolworth's, all of which seemed invincible in their time. If Clavia/Nord were to go belly up, its website would probably be taken down, and we (as a group) would be left with only the stuff we have already downloaded (which wouldn't be the end of the world). I realized that I knew nothing about Clavia's financial health and prospects. Being a Swedish company, it doesn't file SEC reports here in the US. I did, though, find some financial information through the Swedish search engine hitta.se. A summary report (which you hopefully won't have to translate, but appropriate icons are provided for that if necessary) is located at https://www.hitta.se/f%C3%B6retagsinfor ... :undefined The numbers are given in TKR, which I believe translates to Thousands of Swedish Kronor. If my math is correct, using the current, although fluid, exchange rate of $0.10712 USD for each Krona, it appears that for its fiscal year ended August 2018 Clavia had Revenue of $30.58 million USD, Profit After Net Financial Items of $8.66 million USD, and Results (probably equating to Net Income here in the US) of $45,100, all up from the previous year. Total Assets at year-end were $14.72 million USD and there were 38 employees. Clavia paid no dividends in the last three years, so it seems to be retaining earnings for growth or other corporate purposes. I am not an analyst, broker, CPA, financial advisor or other financial professional so I don't profess to be knowledgeable or necessarily correct about all of this, and I am giving no advice. It looks to me, though, that Clavia is a smallish company operating profitably with positive recent trends, and so I am not overly concerned that it will disappear anytime soon. On the other hand, one can never know what the future will bring (just ask Sports Authority, Linens & Things, Borders and TWA).

[Schorsch]

Following up on my prior post, some of you may also be interested to know that Clavia's reported Profit Margin was 28.34% for fiscal 2018, up from 22.75% in 2017 and 23.44% in 2016. This is consistent with my previous impression as to Clavia's financial health.

[Schorsch]

Interesting topic, and compliments for the hunting of Swedish financial reports!
I have no inside information except what you posted, but the last time I heard some informed opinion about Clavia's size (maybe Pablo here on this forum?), it was less than 30 people.
If it's now 38 that's a huge leap in personnel, it means things are really going well. Which is not surprising, the high-end segment is always the most profitable, and usually the less touched by the ebbs and tides of the market (even in times of crisis or with aggressive competition, you only need to sell relatively few items, and in a global market it's relatively easy to find those "few" customers).

Of course, this is only true if product quality justifies the price tag but, despite a few recent blips in the development of the NS3, Clavia undoubtedly continues to deliver on that front!


By the way, I admit I never thought of checking Clavia's financial status to know if I'd still be able to download my piano sounds in the future...interesting approach!

[Schorsch]

Those are very reasonable (and in fact rather more conservative than I would like to see) profit margins - they are clearly not gouging us on price. I'd be perfectly comfortable continuing to pay what they ask for even if it was closer to 35%. Like you, I'd rather see them making good stuff well into the future.

[lawman]

Spider,
I agree that growth in the number of employees is a good indicator. In August 2018 Clavia reported 38 employees, up from 35 in 2017, which was itself up from 33 in 2016. Good, steady, positive growth. I've got to sign off now. I have to go redeem my gift certificate at Circuit City and use my discount card at Blockbuster.

[Petesr]

I recently visited Europe. While there I bought a gig bag for my C2D. Brand new for about $220. I am wondering why Nord products are so much more expensive here in the US. Is the US distributor pocketing the difference or does Clavia make more profit off of US sales?

[Spider]

I recently visited Europe. While there I bought a gig bag for my C2D. Brand new for about $220. I am wondering why Nord products are so much more expensive here in the US. Is the US distributor pocketing the difference or does Clavia make more profit off of US sales?

You have an idea how much more expensive US products are for us here in EU?

Import taxes, VAT, distribution costs, exchange rates...

[analogika]

The difference isn’t quite as huge the other way for most “American” products (once you subtract sales tax), because they tend to be made in China or elsewhere, so shipping costs and import duties apply for both regions.

[CountFosco]

Poignant """s"

[Gambold]

>If Clavia/Nord were to go belly up, its website would probably be taken down, and we (as a group) would be left with only the stuff we have already downloaded <

I have tried to keep my own Nord library with all the downloads, organized in folders. That's just for the pianos etc - not the samples of course, there are far too many of those! I made the choice just to keep Large copies of everything - I don't think Clavia is going down anytime soon but you're right - as technologies change, markets change too, and a small company won't have the resources to innovate as quickly.

Clavia is already behind the curve on their software (no wireless, no IPad or Chromebook access, etc) but that has not been a deal-breaker for most customers - although having to continue to plug a Windows or Mac computer via USB into the board is getting older by the year. I'm sure it would be expensive and time-consuming for them to engineer this functionality in - that's the curse of a small company who makes technology-based products. It's not like a Gibson Les Paul, where we will take one from any year in the past six decades...