When businesses owned and managed by the founder reach a level of success and/or maturity, some owners float the company and take their proceeds leaving the business in the hands of a board responsible to shareholders - which in my experience often is a negative move from the point of view of the customers. Others, like Naim, remain in the founder’s ownership and steering until his/her retirement or death, retaining original philosophy and approach, but from that point the consequences are mixed, depending on who buys/inherits and their approach. It is not uncommon for businesses to close at that point, or fold before long after, and that has happened to several successful but small hifi businesses in the past. It seems to me that Naim is still in transition.
In my observation venture capitalists work either by doing something (often drastic) to make a business more appealing to a buyer then selling (and I was caught up in that once), or get a large enough profit themselves to leave their money in it for as long as that continues, but making their demands clear to management, often leading to a streamlining of the business to focus only on the profitable lines.
You will only find out when you see what the beneficiaries did with what was placed in trust for them. If they did not want anything to do with the business then the trust could have been wrapped up with the help of the trustee allowing them to sell their shares.
Yes I was taken by it to tell you the truth, I also had a look at a recent live version, was stunning. Think I’ll go hunting for the lp next vinyl shopping day🤗
Having a couple of decades staring at boxes that bring so much joy, you kinda feel like you have a bit of skin in the game when you really don’t. If one fan club goes another will arrive. A good product is a good product. Time will reveal all.
I wish Naim audio UK all the very best for their endeavours in this very very competitive’s space in the market.
What do they say “funny old game isn’t it” or was it
“something intesting happened to me on the way to my funeral.”
Regards Nz Rooster ATB
Sounds perfect James, we had a long walk this a.m., Craven bitter (from the Bothy) is going down well, Tove Lo playing on my UK system, Roast beef (local) and Rice pud are in the oven, Yorky pud mixture in the fridge, red wine breathing…bliss.
Provenance is a minor importance. At the first place ratio quality/price, short delivery time, excellent after service and a dedicated high standard/enthusiastic dealer network are the real dealbreakers. These elements make or break a company. No customers, no production or company.
I suspect that most of British HIFi nuts read UK HiFi magazines to get ideas as what is best kit to buy. However if demos or purchased performance is not up to scratch then Naim would not have grown to the piosition it became.
For me the most important aspect is servicing Naim boxes in Europe. The big problem is that Brexit means that sending equipment to Salisbury for service results in severe delays and expense while the customs and postal services are sorted out. If manufacture is carried out in EU then hopefully service can be included and that must be a big advantage to us ex-pats and other EU customers. If Class A can do do it then I am sure that engineers in Slovakia can do it to the same or even higher standard.
There is often no need to send it to Salisbury. In many countries the distributor is also part of Vervent and is able to service. Eg Latham in Benelux or Musicline in Germany. Failing those, go to LASA in Italy. All these are Naim Authorised. We actually have more options in continental Europe already.
The EU service points already existant services all units, like the DR ones, and does the same job of Salisbury, having the same spares and following the same routines ? I don´t believe so.
If with the EU factory comes a EU service point with shared logistics with Salisbury that would be great.
Sounding like an old scratched record
All my stuff was serviced and recapped by musicline in Germany. Only the CDS3 repair required sending the unit back to the UK. They also took care of DR upgrades as well but that was too expensive for me
ATB
