BRANDING:France's last piano-maker is using its historic brand name and customised products to compete against cheaper Chinese imports

Arnaud Marion, the chairman of the board of Pleyel, the last piano-maker in France, has developed a strategy to survive Chinese competition: forget about competing on production costs, revive a historic brand name and make only bespoke instruments of the highest quality.

All but 600 of the 10,000 pianos sold in France last year were imported, mostly from China. "You can buy a Chinese upright piano for €500," Marion explains. "For the same amount, I can have only half of the cabinet work done, not even assembled . . . It was a historic error to try to position French pianos in the mid- to lower segment of the market. It's as if tomorrow you were told that Hermès handbags were being made by Monoprix. It wouldn't seem right."

In 2002, Pleyel reduced its staff from 120 to 75. Under Marion's strategy, annual production has decreased from 600 to 30 pianos a year, which are only top of the line concert grands, "pianos d'artistes" - decorated by well known artists - and an ultra-modern piano inspired by the 1930s and designed by Andrée Putman.

In 18 months, Marion has sold four of the firm's new P280 grand pianos, which are 2.8 metres long, to concert halls in Japan, China and the US. The P280 costs €107,000. The "pianos d'artistes" start at €85,000. Marion sold one for an 80 metre yacht last summer. This month, he will take two to Abu Dhabi for a contemporary art show at the Emirates Hotel, where he hopes to entice leading Middle East decorators.

Classic baby grands start at €30,000. At Pianos Nebout, a Paris firm that specialises in Pleyels from 1920-1930, a restored baby grand can be purchased for as little as €15,000.

Marion is thrilled that mainstream media like Paris Match magazine are publishing articles about Pleyel pianos. "There was a time when pianos were part of every décor; a piano was a cultural object," says Marion. "I want to bring pianos back into fashion."

Pleyel celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, and Marion believes his strategy can pull France's only surviving piano manufacturer out of its long decline. The brand was made famous in the 1830s by Frédéric Chopin, who was a close friend of the Pleyel family.

Pleyel's factory, in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, closed in 1961. Pleyel pianos were manufactured under license by Schimmel in Germany, then under the Rameau mark by an Italian insurance company in southern France. Martigny purchased the piano company in 2000 and reunited the concert hall and the company which had been separated in the 1930s.

This autumn, Pleyel opened a showroom designed by Jacques Garcia, who has created some of the most fashionable hotels and restaurants in Paris, in the foyer of the Salle Pleyel. It's an eye-catching display, with a red piano hanging from the ceiling. Some 100 people visit daily, more when there is a concert.

Marion brought Pleyel's factory back from southern France to Saint-Denis. "We had a virtual existence down there," he says. "Now it's real; I'm half an hour from central Paris, and 20 minutes from Roissy airport."

Marion believes Pleyel can be a model for other European businesses. "You have to play globalisation the right way," he says. "You have to let countries who can produce more cheaply do so, then let the consumer choose. The Chinese don't know how to create a brand name. We're fortunate enough to have a legend and savoir-faire. It doesn't matter if we only make 30 pianos."