Colin MacKenzie's visit to Wharfedale

Wharfedale, established in 1932 by Gilbert Briggs, is possibly Britain's best known hifi brand. Famous for their loudspeakers, the company has gone through a number of owners since Gilbert Briggs sold it in 1958.

The most recent owners are twin Chinese businessmen who, naturally, have moved some of the production to China in order to keep the product competitively priced.

I was invited to look around their production facility in China. I have been fortunate enough to visit some factories in Japan some years ago, but never any in China. I had mixed feelings about what I would see and how this would impact on the ethics of selling Wharfedale products.

Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised. The factory uses, as I expected, substantially more labour than in other countries I've visited. Staff, although paid low by UK standards, are provided with housing and seemed reasonably content, although I admit it was difficult having a conversation as most of them didn't speak Scots and the Chinese words I picked up the previous evening in a Karaoke Bar didn't seem of much use.

As there isn't a tremendous amount of automation the products are essentially hand built, although great pains were made to ensure consistent quality control throughout. The Wharfedale 'story' is quite strong. Most of the components are now built within the factory. When they found a good company that made components they required, they bought them and moved them in! Here is one of a few factories which make all of their cabinets, drive units, crossovers, and assemble them by hand at affordable prices!

I suppose some people may consider that I'm quite cynical when being spun a sales pitch, (aren't we all) and I'm not easily bought with a drink in a Karaoke Bar or even a visit to China.

However the Wharfedale people have some realistic views. They realise that independent retailers in the UK are concerned about 'lending' their name to mass market products (not manufactured by them) and sold through a supermarket chain. They did take a lot of stick from me and other retailers about this philosophy.

Furthermore, Wharfedale marketing people have noted that the current trend (and most likely future) of loudspeakers being sold without systems is through hifi specialists and independent retailers. They have started to seriously address this issue through the introduction of products suitable for more discerning customers and independent hifi retailers. The most obvious example is the recently high reviewed 'Diamond 8' loudspeaker.

Virtually all of the components are built 'in house' - how many British speaker manufacturers can claim this nowadays?