Petrof
Encyclopedia
Petrof is a Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 maker. The company was founded in 1864 in Hradec Králové
Hradec Králové
Hradec Králové is a city of the Czech Republic, in the Hradec Králové Region of Bohemia. The city's economy is based on food-processing technology, photochemical, and electronics manufacture. Traditional industries include musical instrument manufacturing – the best known being PETROF pianos...

 by Antonín Petrof (d.1915) who had studied piano making in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.

History of PETROF

1857 – The company founder Antonín PETROF goes to Vienna to learn how to build grand pianos

1864 – Hradec Králové - building of the first concert grand piano

1865 – Antonín Petrof transforms his father's joinery workshop into a piano maker's workshop

1874 – The company moves to a new property in the direction of Brno

1881 – The company starts keyboard production and the construction of action

1884 – The construction of a saw mill

1894 – Start exporting instruments abroad

1895 – Subsidiary in Temesvár in Hungary opened

1908 – The company becomes a limited company. Not only the founder Antonín Petrof, but also his sons Jan, Antonín and from 1914 the youngest Vladimír (2nd generation) work for the company.

1915 – Antonín Petrof and his wife Marie, the company confidential clerk die

1928 – PETROF together with the significant American manufacturer STEINWAY open a subsidiary in London at Wigmore Street.

1932 – The company management enlarges the company administration with the 3rd Petrof generation: Dimitrij, Eduard and Eugena

1948 – Nationalization - the national company Továrny na piana a varhany (Piano and organ factories) with a registered office at Hradec Králové is established; the PETROF brand is further used

1954 – Development department for upright pianos and grand pianos is established.

1991 – The Petrof family returns to the factory
– Ing. Jan Petrof (4th generation) after 40 years of communistic regime
– Start of privatization process

1994 – New modern research centre with own big-capacity free-field measuring chamber, biggest of its kind in the Czech republic, opened

1997 – Továrna na piana, a. s. established in Hradec Králové

1999 – 135th anniversary of establishment of Petrof company

2001 – PETROF, spol. s r. o. - the factory passed fully into the hands of the Petrof family, 5th generation enters

2004 – Zuzana Ceralová Petrofová becomes president of the company – 5th generation

2005 - Zuzana Ceralová Petrofová - appointed president of European Federation of Music Instrument Manufacturers - CAFIM
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