Made in Britain?

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Following on from another thread I was wondering can manufacturers legitimately say that a product is made in Britain or the uk with the British flag designation, when the main parts aren’t even made in the uk - the case made in Switzerland or Sweden.

Obviously not every electronic resistor etc can be made in the uk, but surely if a manufacturer says made in the uk but the main case is made elsewhere and the pcb in China, it’s not really made in the uk, but assembled in the uk. Like saying an Airbus is made in Toulouse or France by being assembled there, when not really the case as the Brit’s make the wings in the uk.

 

[andyjm]

Following on from another thread I was wondering can manufacturers legitimately say that a product is made in Britain or the uk with the British flag designation, when the main parts aren’t even made in the uk - the case made in Switzerland or Sweden.

Obviously not every electronic resistor etc can be made in the uk, but surely if a manufacturer says made in the uk but the main case is made elsewhere and the pcb in China, it’s not really made in the uk, but assembled in the uk. Like saying an Airbus is made in Toulouse or France by being assembled there, when not really the case as the Brit’s make the wings in the uk.

As you would expect, this is not a new problem and is a highly regulated area as tariffs / quotas and trade deals depend on it. There are two main methods used, one is where the last 'significant transformation' took place (assembly of parts for example), the other is to look for the point that most value was added to the product.

Almost all electronic component manufacture takes place in the far east. So most (if not all) of the innards of 'British' hifi are foreign. You can call it 'made in England' if you assemble all the bits here, although this gets a bit muddy if (say) you import completed PCBs and just put a box around them where the PCB is the majority of the value

An iPhone is assembled in China from parts made in China - Apple address the by having 'Developed by Apple in California, Assembled in China' on the back.....

 

[Al ears]

Following on from another thread I was wondering can manufacturers legitimately say that a product is made in Britain or the uk with the British flag designation, when the main parts aren’t even made in the uk - the case made in Switzerland or Sweden.

Obviously not every electronic resistor etc can be made in the uk, but surely if a manufacturer says made in the uk but the main case is made elsewhere and the pcb in China, it’s not really made in the uk, but assembled in the uk. Like saying an Airbus is made in Toulouse or France by being assembled there, when not really the case as the Brit’s make the wings in the uk.

As you would expect, this is not a new problem and is a highly regulated area as tariffs / quotas and trade deals depend on it. There are two main methods used, one is where the last 'significant transformation' took place (assembly of parts for example), the other is to look for the point that most value was added to the product.

Almost all electronic component manufacture takes place in the far east. So most (if not all) of the innards of 'British' hifi are foreign. You can call it 'made in England' if you assemble all the bits here, although this gets a bit muddy if (say) you import completed PCBs and just put a box around them where the PCB is the majority of the value

An iPhone is assembled in China from parts made in China - Apple address the by having 'Developed by Apple in California, Assembled in China' on the back.....

+1 The term 'Made in...' is very wooly worldwide and can almost always be replaced by 'Final assembly done in...'

Can you find anything that is 100 percent made in UK within the realms of hifi? I very much doubt it. Even the well respected high end Tannoy speakers will contain components in their crossovers that are brought in from abroad and most of the exotic woods employed never set root in UK solil ;-)

 

[Electro]

It would perhaps be more honest if manufacturers said.

' Made in any part of the world where the costs and labour were cheapest at the time of manufacture.'

 

[nopiano]

We certainly seem to have quite a few products these days labelled to the effect that they are assembled somewhere, rather than made. I suppose the point about imported components assembled here, or home designed but made in the Pacific Basin must apply.

Two turntable manufacturers can probably claim to be amongst the most British - SME and Michell.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Designed in the UK.
Assembled in a sweat shop

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Designed in the UK. Assembled in a sweat shop

yes a moral ethical element to it too. I remember watching that documentary on the living conditions of employees making iPhones in China. Imagine a British hi Fi company uses one of those firms , makes pretty much all of the product in China, and then it’s assembled in Cambridgeshire and they put a ‘made in england’ stamp on it. Terrible.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Designed in the UK. Assembled in a sweat shop

yes a moral ethical element to it too. I remember watching that documentary on the living conditions of employees making iPhones in China. Imagine a British hi Fi company uses one of those firms , makes pretty much all of the product in China, and then it’s assembled in Cambridgeshire and they put a ‘made in england’ stamp on it. Terrible. 

It's putting food on Thier parents plates.
Sad hey

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_10154658502539468]

Designed in the UK. Assembled in a sweat shop

yes a moral ethical element to it too. I remember watching that documentary on the living conditions of employees making iPhones in China. Imagine a British hi Fi company uses one of those firms , makes pretty much all of the product in China, and then it’s assembled in Cambridgeshire and they put a ‘made in england’ stamp on it. Terrible. 

It's putting food on Thier parents plates.
Sad hey

Its even worse when you look into where the raw materials are mined from.

Won't get on a soapbox but if it bothers people amnesty international are a good organisation to support.

 

[insider9]

Sure, I don't want to be lied to as a consumer but any attempt to create employment in the UK should be applauded.

 

[jjbomber]

Can you find anything that is 100 percent made in UK within the realms of hifi?

WhatHiFi magazine?

 

[Al ears]

Can you find anything that is 100 percent made in UK within the realms of hifi?

WhatHiFi magazine?

You mean with the staples that are probably made in China.....

 

[jjbomber]

You mean with the staples that are probably made in China.....

Staples??? Banned by Health and Safety a long time ago.

 

[davidf]

Sure, I don't want to be lied to as a consumer but any attempt to create employment in the UK should be applauded.

It should be, but the usual comments are about the cost of the finished product, along with complaints that Chinese produced equivalents are cheaper and better value for money.

I’d have liked to have supported genuine all British manufacturers, but there’s so few around it was pointless.

 

[spiny norman]

Imagine a British hi Fi company uses one of those firms , makes pretty much all of the product in China, and then it’s assembled in Cambridgeshire and they put a ‘made in england’ stamp on it. Terrible.

Imagine all you like: not sure there's very much hi-fi assembled in Cambridgeshire these days.

 

[spiny norman]

You mean with the staples that are probably made in China.....

And don't even ask where the paper comes from.

 

[Al ears]

You mean with the staples that are probably made in China.....

And don't even ask where the paper comes from.

Where does the paper come form? Yours, Anne R Kistik-Lee.

 

[jjbomber]

Where does the paper come form? Yours, Anne R Kistik-Lee.

Trees. Yours, Sa Karstik-Lee

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Imagine a British hi Fi company uses one of those firms , makes pretty much all of the product in China, and then it’s assembled in Cambridgeshire and they put a ‘made in england’ stamp on it. Terrible.

Imagine all you like: not sure there's very much hi-fi assembled in Cambridgeshire these days.

probably not mass market hi Fi but lots of hi Fi firms in Cambridgeshire assemble audiophile hi Fi. Firms like cyrus, castle speakers, avid. Used to have Quad and Meridian manufacturing/assembling. All these in Huntingdon.

http://www.esquire.co.uk/style/gear/news/a6019/hi-fi/

 

[spiny norman]

Firms like cyrus, castle speakers, avid.

Castle speakers? Umm, no.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Some new castle speakers are decent.

 

[drummerman]

Its probably pointless to make a distinction between UK and rest of Europe as difference of cost of manufacturing is similar, certainly not as great as West vs Far East/China.

As John Westlake made clear in his interview, the difference in cost and manufacturing ethics can be stupendous. Lead times can be manyfold quicker in China. They will even put machines out in the open during nights if needed. Parts cost are a fraction of Western equivelants.

Still, there is something strangely re-assuring about a product made closer to home even if perhaps it should'nt always be.

Chinese with disposable income also love UK made stuff. Probably part of the reason why they fall over themselves to lap up every small UK Hifi business they can but the memory of badly made goods is still lingering in folks minds there and the proliferation of second rate, cheap electronics is probably still the norm. Good, reliable chinese products are still out of reach for many there so nothing will change. They will always be made. 'Knock-offs' are part of entrepreneurial Chinese/Far Eastern psyche and they are actually pretty good at it.

 

[spiny norman]

Some new castle speakers are decent.

Yes, that factory in Shenzhen is very good.

 

[seemorebtts]

A Chinese man bought mission and with it was wharfedale and audiolab quad but Cyrus which was mission split From them and stayed it's own company thank god. Meridian are owned buy an American bloke that has movie connections and a very expensive watch company. You will see alot of meridian product placements in movies like Twilight,get him to the greek and limitless but they are still made in Britain all in house.they do buy disc drives for cd Sony I think. Arcam used to make everything in Britain except disc drives but that went to China in the 90s as they were making a loss on the alpha range.we have dcs in Cambridge too which make everything in Britain and IV made some prototype boards for ear yoshino but they might go abroad for mass production not sure.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

A Chinese man bought mission and with it was wharfedale and audiolab quad but Cyrus which was mission split From them and stayed it's own company thank god. Meridian are owned buy an American bloke that has movie connections and a very expensive watch company. You will see alot of meridian product placements in movies like Twilight,get him to the greek and limitless but they are still made in Britain all in house.they do buy disc drives for cd Sony I think. Arcam used to make everything in Britain except disc drives but that went to China in the 90s as they were making a loss on the alpha range.we have dcs in Cambridge too which make everything in Britain and IV made some prototype boards for ear yoshino but they might go abroad for mass production not sure.

And Arcam was not made far from me and you

I personally liked Arcam very much when there stuff was made here and at the time I owned a Alfa 7se CD player and it matching amplifier with the sticker with the Union Jack on the front and if you wanted to upgrade anything you could take it and they would upgrade it for you for a price .

Today’s Arcam I am not sure if you can upgrade them like you was able to back in 90s when made here .