MUMBAI: After selling music instruments for overseas partners Yamaha, the Nippon group now plans to expand its music business by starting the Yamaha School of Music in collaboration with Yamaha India Limited in a couple of years. "There is a lot of scope for music education business in India as we don't have many music institutes here," says Nippon Group promoter Chetan Acharya. We'll be doing that in partnership with Yamaha – they have music institutes world over....

Yamaha's music instrument store, christened Yamaha Music Square, was inaugurated last week by world-renowned musicians Louis Banks and percussionist Sivamani along with Yamaha Music India managing director Kozaburo Kume in Chennai.

For Yamaha's Indian expansion, Yamaha India has partnered with the Nippon group for the distribution of their products.

Yamaha's global presence is evident, but the reason why they chose Tamil Nadu and not any other metropolitan city in India is based on a research the company conducted recently. "A research done by Yamaha prior to the launch showed that Tamil Nadu is the biggest market for western music instruments in India," says Nippon Group's Chetan Acharya.

Nippon Group is a Rs three billion company with a strong distribution and retail presence in India. Prior to getting into the music instrument business, the Nippon Group distributed Yamaha Home Theater and AV products across India.

"Yamaha was very happy with our distribution of Yamaha Home Theatre products, so they thought of launching the Yamaha Music store in India which would be dedicated to selling only Yamaha instruments," Acharya says. Had it been some been some other instrument manufacturer, we wouldn't have gone ahead.... He explains, Yamaha has a wide range of products, they manufacture everything – right from guitar, drums, saxophone, pianos, keyboards to high end professional equipment which is used at the recording studios – not all instrument manufacturers have such a wide range....

The group also looks at this business as a way to serve to the community, I have been a music lover and it's a nice feeling to watch all the budding musicians come and play at the store. It's also a nice way to encourage new talent and do something for the community," he added, but it will take at least two years till we start the music institute....

The Nippon Group is currently doing a turnover of Rs 120 million in Home Theatre Equipment and with the help of the newly opened Yamaha Music Square, expects to cross a turnover of Rs 250 million per annum.