B&O is renowned for its excellent customer support. Only 2 of its speakers are made in China, rest all in Denmark and Czech Republic.
B&O is a relatively small European company and the labour costs in Denmark are relatively high.
The materials used in the products can also be more expensive than those found in other electrical goods. The use of aluminium has been a long-standing tradition and the machining and anodising of this material is a B&O speciality.
Products are also designed to be serviced and are expected to have a long life span. B&O will actively support products for 10 years following its discontinuation and often longer.
Of course the design itself carries a price tag as does the exclusive image. But also remember the technologies developed by B&O over the years - HX-Pro, ICE power, Tangential Tracking record players.
From another forum:
The problem with this "China" issue is more snobbery rather than knowledge of manufacturing. People just assume that only Western manufacturers are somehow pioneers of quality manufacturing. Ironic, considering there was a recent German poll and their view of British manufacturing quality was fairly low - viewed as manufacturers of poor quality goods.
Chinese manufacturers do what you tell them to do. When Apple, as an example, design their high-quality products, they don't design them around what their Chinese manufacturer is capable of producing! The other way around. Apple design the product in their labs and, when complete, they show the specs to their manufacturers and they get the factories tooled up to cope.
Indeed, I'd go as far as saying that the Chinese go beyond what they need to meet a clients requirements. They are only too happy to get it right. They are very very embarassed if they get production wrong - unlike in Britain where we can't get Brit workers interested in manufacturing.
As for Chinese "quality issues", those issues come from our consumer demand, rather than the supply. We DEMAND cheaper goods and, because of this, the suppliers are always finding ways to cut corners, so they can cut costs. To get your 50" TV for £799, the manufacturer uses even cheaper plastics, cheaper speakers and so on.
That's where the perception of poor quality comes from, not the manufacturing process.
Armani and many luxury clothing brands have been producing in China for years and barely anyone has noticed. People still buy from those brands as frequentely has they have done previously. Only difference is, Armani is making more of a markup as they can get them produced more cheaply.
Getting the BeoPlay and other "cheaper" products produced in China doesn't affect my view of Bang & Olufsen. As I said above, the Chinese haven't designed the products for B&O. They are 100% B&O. They specify the design, the materials and the components.
We all worry about B&O losing money, share price going down and so on, then when they look at a way of saving some money and getting goods on the shelves more quickly - like other manufacturers - we see complaints coming in.
This is modern life. We all want cheaper prices and more quickly developed products, but we want them made in Denmark, too? We can't have both. Blame consumerism for a start.
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