A strange comment, considering the number of - mildly - Francophobe posts on here…
I indicated that it’s not a perfect analogy. However, Fender expanded because they were losing sales and Naim are probably expanding for the same reason.
The quality at Fender has always had a question mark hanging over it. It’s not unknown for a body to be 6 pieces of wood glued together then painted and it’s not unknown for a body to be made from a single
Piece of wood.
Brand identity is important as Fender found out post 1965 when the business was taken over and ultimately run by accountants. Quality slowly declined.
I appreciated that electronics is different from guitar manufacturing and it’s good that Naim are indicating that build quality will not change. I hope that the business does not strive for profit at the expense of quality.
I agree it’s not a perfect analogy. The major guitar builders, Fender, Gibson, Martin, Taylor etc all sought out new lower cost markets to capture a different segment of the guitar market. If they had tried to price and match the USA product to these markets it would have been disastrous, nobody would accept a Chinese/Mexican Fender/Gibson as being equal, it would have seen their market share plummet.
I also agree the period when accountants were in charge almost killed Fender and Gibson.
accountants know the price of everything and the value of nothing
I do not have any issues with the naim factory expansion
It was inevitable because of taxation issues and capacity shortage.
I don’t have a problem with a naim made outside uk
It’s still naim as far as I’m concerned
I don’t have any reservations where it is manufactured as long as there is proper back up service which is very important to me
It’s not like they are closing down the naim uk factory?
What we did experience is very long waiting times for a naim.
In one case a customer waited 9 months for a NAP500 !
Hope the new factory will shorten such long waiting times and help with servicing also
Yet.
They won’t shut down the UK factory because of taxation issues, the brilliant engineers like Steve Sells and many other reasons…Naim is a British Brand after all !
That would just move the problem, not solve it. Lets just hope they don’t make it into a museum and that Naim continue to evolve.
I know at least three reputable UK speaker manufacturers making their cabinets in eastern europe and that is without even searching. I remember reading interview with another making boxes in china, just don’t remember who it was, better leave them all unnamed.
When I order my new classics (just have to sell off some stuff) I don’t care which factory, even the UK one will do
Do you have a threshold as to what would make it no longer be Naim for you?
Yes
When it no longer says naim on the badge simple as that
And it’s probably all the better for now being made in Germany… being made in Europe doesn’t mean being badly made. Naim will have made any decision around this after lenghty discussion and evaluation, from all angles. Anything being made by hand (coach built) in the UK is now incredibly expensive. Couple that with the lack of tallent coming through, the cost of building new facilities, the cost of R&D, their obligtions to parent company, the fact that us lot like the fact that it’s expensive (but not that expensive please) and are already bemoaning the cost of the new classic kit etc, etc, etc and things need to be done, to try and keep a lid on production, quality and cost. There’s a large amount of having our cake and wanting to eat it here. I couldn’t give 2 hoots if they make kit overseas there are some seriously premium brands already doing that successfully, there’s no way they would kill their reputation and brand but putting sub-standard kit out there, and there’s always the possibility that it could actually be better for it.
Bowers and Wilkins speakers below 800 series are made in China
I take your point, but for me certain production countries will rule out any purchases by me. Naim badge or not. Hope it goes well for the Salisbury staff too.
Martin
I haven’t suggested anywhere that I think it would be detrimental to quality, nor that car production in Germany would be inferior, I know they are not. Conversely why do you believe that they probably would be better quality?
But not actually outsourced, they have their own factory there. Which I do think makes a difference.
I wonder who makes the Mu-so & Qb for Naim?
Sorry, although replying to you (in the first sentence to be fair), the rest of my post is in response to the comments of others. Purely from a motoring perspective i have owned by British and German cars, the gulf in quality has been (for me) significant.
HARIBO has 16 manufacturing facilities around the world in the following 10 countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Turkey and Brazil
Just saying ……… I still prefer the German ones.
As an accountant, I am offended by this thread
I think it’s also an example of control – simply put, SME have to know it’s done ‘right’ and inviting a.n.other to perform a task doesn’t sit easy with them.
In today’s, often sub-contracted world, when detail is more precious than value/cost, this is something to be admired IMHO, however the bean-counters consider as nonsensical.
Enumerator of legumes.