Question about the Taylor Company

Sdog · #1 04-10-2011, 07:18 PM

Just wondering how big a company is Taylor guitars. Like how many do they produce in a year? Are they big or small compared to others?

Colbyjack · #2 04-10-2011, 07:22 PM

Hi,

Others will give more information, but they are a "big" company. They produce 300-350 guitars per day that the plant is "open".

Yet, although a "big"company, they have very precious standards that each guitar is made to; and the people and machines they use are very quality oriented.

leeasam · #3 04-10-2011, 07:36 PM

I believe they out sold the other big two as far as acoustic for 2010.

Alexrkstr · #4 04-10-2011, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sdog

Just wondering how big a company is Taylor guitars. Like how many do they produce in a year? Are they big or small compared to others?

I did some research. Check out this thread, it has a lot of information:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=212963

leeasam · #5 04-10-2011, 07:59 PM

they no longer have any affiliations with Fender. Their distribution network in Europe ddid not work out as planned. Taylor now has their OWN hub in Europe. Amsterdam.

DJinDallas · #6 04-10-2011, 08:11 PM

There are 700 employees at Taylor these days; 400 in El Cajon and 300 in Tecate. I believe they're right there with Martin in unit sales and revenue and that's before they have the European center running. Pretty impressive organization all the way around.

Alexrkstr · #7 04-10-2011, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeasam

they no longer have any affiliations with Fender. Their distribution network in Europe ddid not work out as planned. Taylor now has their OWN hub in Europe. Amsterdam.

Interesting. Would you mind citing your facts just to keep track of this. It was hard coming up with numbers for Taylor since they are a private company.

JimB1 · #8 04-11-2011, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeasam

I believe they out sold the other big two as far as acoustic for 2010.

I don't know about that. Martin went from their 1 millionth guitar 3 - 4 years ago to 1.5 millionth this year and they do all acoustics. Maybe a third of Taylor's manufacturing is solidbody or hollowbody electrics (more or less depending on what you consider the T5 to be...)

Here's a thread about 2008 numbers:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f.../t-143860.html

I can believe that Taylor doubled their manufacturing over three years (during a recession no less!!!) to 84,000 units a year (350 per day x 20 days per month x 12 months per year) but a third of those are electrics so that would mean possibly 56,000 acoustics per year. If Martin made 500,000 acoustics in 4 years that would mean 125,000 acoustics per year. Martin only makes acoustics.

I think Martin probably still has the edge on them in acoustics. Taylor probably sold more ES systems in acoustic electrics then Martin sold Fishman in acoustic electrics though since until the last year or so Martin wasn't pushing AE models as much.

Of course since neither really publishes numbers on these things, it's all inference for the most part. Martin does put out annual lists of serial numbers for the year though so you can actually get an idea of how many guitars they made if not actual amounts of each model. I don't think Taylor does that.

From what I've seen, Gibson treats the acoustic division like the red-headed step child. Basically as long as they show a profit, they'll keep them open but really I think they make only a fraction of what the electric guitar unit does.

But to answer the OP question, Taylor is a big guitar company.

Just my thought on it...
-Jim

e8n · #9 04-11-2011, 07:42 AM

I think in Bob's book he uses the number 500 guitars per day as a production number.

Talking to my local dealer he said that Taylor is the #1 shiny guitar company in units sold. This would be the higher end guitars. But like anything you can be #1 by finding some segment that you lead in FWIW.

-Dave

Ted @ LA Guitar Sales · #10 04-11-2011, 09:23 AM

Taylor is one of the biggest, currently building a total of 500 guitars a day between the El Cajon and Tecate plant.

edward993 · #11 04-11-2011, 10:07 AM

"Biggest" means you've clearly achieve a business model that works well. Think "McDonalds" ...huge, but I don't wanna eat there

The real beauty about Taylor in my mind is twofold:

1. Stellar instruments that are the best quality/consistency per dollar (sure that's arguable, but it's tough to refute Q/C as these are quantifiable, as opposed to tone assessments).

2. Customer Service and Relations that is second to none. A few, little companies sometimes can approach this kind of personal attention; even at that, precious few that I have experienced. But how Bob and team accomplish it at their echelon of operations is astounding. Every time I have any kind of question or any interaction with anyone related to the company, there is a distinct resolution and I am always happy with the results. This for many years now. And they are batting 1000 with me.

Forgive me as this strayed a bit OT from the OP, but when someone asks "how big" any company is, my knee-jeck response is always, "what's the point of 'large' if the rest of it doesn't fall into place." Happy Monday, all!

Edward

Baxter · #12 04-11-2011, 10:09 AM

I'm going to try to find an article I read online. I'll try to post a link. It said that the largest growth in the past few years, in guitar sales, was the acoustic / electric guitar. Taylor was a big part of that. When most of us think acoustic / electric, we think Taylor. Taylor is big, but I think they build guitars with a small company mentality. Quality First.

Alexrkstr · #13 04-11-2011, 11:11 AM

By what has been mentioned in this thread, Taylor makes approximately 130,000 guitars a year.

As I commented on the other thread linked, I believe they will continue growing since the music instruments market is expected to keep growing over the next five years.

leeasam · #14 04-11-2011, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexrkstr

Interesting. Would you mind citing your facts just to keep track of this. It was hard coming up with numbers for Taylor since they are a private company.

http://www.taylorguitars.com/woodand...inter_2011.pdf

read Kurt`s corner

Kevin A · #15 04-11-2011, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edward993

"Biggest" means you've clearly achieve a business model that works well. Think "McDonalds" ...huge, but I don't wanna eat there

...and they (Taylor) keep growing.
Achieving a business model that works well is commendable as long as you can keep your 'end-users' happy. Taylor is not the same company it was 10 years ago—it has grown considerably, and expanded out into various fields than pure acoustic. They've been very fortunate to maintain a high level of quality in mass-producing their product. Not easy to do with the kind of growth they've had. Says a lot about the people running the biz.
They have a loyal following. So does Starbucks. so does the Golden Arches. And like starbucks or MickeyDs, its not for everyone. But there are still plenty of folks strumming 314s while washing down a bigmac with a decaf mocha latte....