Testing times ahead for Linn

How long before Naim, Meridian and others make similar announcements I wonder.

 

I have no doubt the margins are the killer, £32 million turnover is pretty healthy in a shrinking hifi market, and not bad for a manufacturing company of Linn's size. But offshore manufacture is the answer if Linn are interested in maintaining their status as a mid-sized company whilst increasing profit. Ivor seems to want to take the other approach, UK manufacture, which presupposes a small company making a small number of (expensive) products. His problem is that Linn probably haven't made anything interesting since the Classik, and even if they do downsize, without compelling products they're not really going anywhere except further into Bose-dom.

-- Ian

 

Hi Ian, welcome back.

 

I read the other day that Germany is the number one exporter in the world, 9% of total...

I bet their mfg costs are not less than in the UK, so China is not the only solution...

 

How do Rega survive? They manufacture in the UK and have a healthy presence in the budget to mid priced market place.

 

Presuambly they are much smaller than Linn, so need fewer sales to break even and their customers are willing to pay a bit extra.

 

size isn't directly related to break even, margins and fixed costs are. The suggestion is that you can't make in the UK for a profit ... in which case why aren't Rega laying people off?Their customers pay considerably less for the most part than anything made by Linn these days.

 

I guess it relates to bespoke parts built in-house versus 'assembly' of cheap China sourced parts.

 

Nice to see you again Ian!

When is the next seaside special nerdfest going to be? summer is here soon...

TBH, I couldnt give a monkeys about Linn, they aren't interested in the likes of me as a potential customer (not enough money) so why should I care!

 

Define "made in the UK".

For example, it's perfectly legitimate to have PCBs made and populated in china, cable assemblies and casework all come from china as a kit of a few parts. Screwing the board into the case, wiring it up and putting the lid on in the UK is the work of a few minutes and qualifies for "Made in the UK" to be put on the back. Several british manufacturers do this, and this allows those companies to remain competitive.

Alternatively, you get your PCBs made in the UK for 10 times what they cost in china. You buy all your parts from UK distribution networks for 20 times what they cost in china. You pay someone to solder them into the PCB at UK wages (or you pay them to man a wave-solder machine you've paid a lot of money for, etc), etc, etc, etc. And you can put "made in the UK" on the box, just the same as the one that's assembled from chinese-built assemblies.

And from a commercial standpoint, would heading for bose-dom be bad? Their turnover was $1.8bn in 2005.

 

the honest answer is Linn are in no trouble at all,they are just greasing the media pole before with excuses before they drop staff,so not to suffer from customer opinion.

 

Wage costs are a big part of any company's profitability, and Rega is a tiny company compared to Linn. Plus, they have the RB250 which, as anyone who has seen Roy Gandy's house will know, has been phenomenally profitable for them over a long period (the costs of getting a third party to do the original tooling were long ago paid back, so for years every arm cast has been almost pure profit). They also have a brilliant and cost-conscious designer in Terry Bateman, who is the essence of pragmatic innovation on a budget, and they have been riding the wave of the unexpected mid-market vinyl resurgence in the last 10 years or so, something without which they would have seriously struggled, I suspect. They have done some very smart OEM arm deals out of it, on top of sales of their own TTs.

Having said all that, I bet Rega are feeling the pinch too, and it's noticeable that they are starting to put feelers out in the more up-market segment, where they can charge more (the new MC, the R9 speakers, etc).

Yeah, must do something, although finding a spare weekend is difficult at the moment, work things are gearing up for a big early July deadline which is keeping me busy. I'll keep you posted, things should be a bit quieter come mid-July.

I'm not really here

-- Ian

 

I could have sworn I saw a full page advert for the sondek which said it was a new design being launched plus retrofittable to older turntables. This could be the panacea on which they are hanging their hat, given the user base and potential market out there. It will have to be good though. Even aftermarket companies are offering improvement kits for sondeks though. I saw one from the funk firm which drives the platter with three pulleys on a carbon fibre plinth, so they may have missed the boat there.

I hope not though. I've always thought looking at linns large product lines in the secondhand market that maybe they just spread themselves too thinly.

 

Very true Ian.

Look inside a Rega Planet - stuffed with what most would regard as cheap crap yet it manages to sound excellent.

 

Interesting comment.

Interesting comment. Are you on the flat surface of my screen , somewhere beyond or nowhere at all?

 

You're not here either, you died in March

-- Ian

 

Aha. But did my death really happen?

 

looking at his avatar - he looks alive and well...

in corrie aka norris...

 

I read about the keel one piece sub chassis for the LP12, two grand? Is there a lot of expense tooling up? Its seems very expensive. I guess you'd really have to be a fan of the sondek.

 

the piece looks cast and then post machined, not a full cnc from billet.
lost wax mould would be about £20 per piece, and if designed well from the mould maybe 60 minutes on the Miller.

if its die cast then its a different story,