Tannoy

[bruce]

According to bbc, tannoy to close Coatbridge manufacturing plant

 

Audio firm 'to close Coatbridge plant'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-36175640

[McIvy]

It's a very sad day indeed.

 

The end of eighty years of legendary, pioneering point source loudspeaker manufacturing in the UK, at the hands of foreign ownership.

 

Particularly at a time when suddenly, most of the other top end designers and makers have realised the major significance of coaxial drivers in monitors, and started making their own versions.

 

The originators missing their own boat.........!!!!

 

Yes, they're transferring to a cheap Chinese factory and supposedly moving R&D to Kidderminster, but where's the investment been in the last few years,up to now? What about the poor seventy in Scotland? I'd like to hear their views.........

 

From a chap whose enjoyed thirty years of aural appreciation of Tannoy MG's in the studio.

[sam.spoons]

I always coveted (and could never afford) a pair of Tannoy Reds. They are iconic speakers and I do feel for the workers from the manufacturing plant. It's certainly a sad day for them and their families. But the truth is that Tannoy have been making many of their speakers in China for a good while. They belong to Music Group now (German company), having belonged to TC (Danish) since 2002 so it's been in foreign ownership for 14 years already.

 

Aside from the tragic loss of employment for 70 dedicated and committed staff which is to be lamented, one has to consider whether the company would have still being trading if TC and then MG had not bought it.

 

Music Group have had a poor reputation with Behringer in the past (and much of their legacy kit is still distinctly flakey IMO) but they appear to have turned the corner since launching the X32 range which is generally accepted as good sounding, decent build quality and has an industry leading reliability record (if the figures are accurate).

 

The factory belongs entirely to Music Group and (if you believe Uli Behringer's account) came about when they found could't trust the generic Chinese factories to maintain QC 24/7 (they would substitute cheaper components from spec as soon as the EU managers had gone home resulting in poor reliability and performance). The whole operation is managed by MG execs and managers and manufactures exclusively MG products.

[Derek Tallent]

I think it was inevitable that Tannoy manufacturing would be shifted off to the Chinese production facility...

 

I'm not too sure you could class Music Group as a German company......

[GR1]

I remember a lot of grumbling and gnashing of teeth when Tannoy production was moved from West Norwood to Coatbridge. Everyone said all the same stuff about quality, production techniques, history, etc. As far as I remember the Scottish location was chosen so that the company could receive Government money which it needed to keep going. This is just a modern iteration of what went on decades ago. Not good for the workers though ....

[Simon Lewis]

Here's the paper article from Commercial Integrator. Whilst it's sad to see this happen, Tannoy have perhaps not grown as they might within TC group ownership? With regards to the overseas manufacturing facility, I could easily believe that Music Group's plant is more high tech than what they have in Scotland and it should be capable of making speakers to the same standard. It is a shame about the workers at Coatbridge though...

[MikeMacGlasgow]

Here's the paper article from Commercial Integrator. Whilst it's sad to see this happen, Tannoy have perhaps not grown as they might within TC group ownership? With regards to the overseas manufacturing facility, I could easily believe that Music Group's plant is more high tech than what they have in Scotland and it should be capable of making speakers to the same standard. It is a shame about the workers at Coatbridge though...

 

I believe you are right Simon. I have friends that are employees and there is a much bigger picture to this. Whilst met with sadness about possible redundancies - in the business sense of things, Tannoy could have vanished long ago if TC group hadn't purchased it, and now The Music Group. Tannoy has been losing money for a length of time and the several acquisitions which have taken place over the years have kept the brand alive and all of which have respected the brands rich heritage and history. If The Music Group say they plan to invest millions then maybe its no bad thing for the future of the brand. There is a typical response about moving production to China, but they are keeping it in house within China - not sourcing it out. I look forward to seeing how things develop.

[Stuart91]

I could easily believe that Music Group's plant is more high tech than what they have in Scotland and it should be capable of making speakers to the same standard.

 

I had a tour of the Tannoy factory (5+yrs ago, when we first became dealers). The guy showing us round was apologetic at times about how "low tech" it was. The handmade processes were actually appropriate for some of the high end hi-fi products, but for mass produced speakers it was clearly lacking. He had mentioned that they were hoping to relocate to an entirely new facility, but that obviously didn't happen.

 

There were definite advantages to having a "local" factory. We once picked up some speakers when we were en route to an installation job. Lead time on more specialised product was reasonable. I'm not sure how they will continue with lines like the VQ series -stockholding was always low and the boxes were largely built to order. Air freighting large format cabinets from China is not going to be an economical option.

[sam.spoons]

I think it was inevitable that Tannoy manufacturing would be shifted off to the Chinese production facility...

 

I'm not too sure you could class Music Group as a German company......

 

You'd have to call Apple a Chinese company too then ;)

[Derek Tallent]

Isn't Music Group HQ in Manilla ?

[MikeMacGlasgow]

I could easily believe that Music Group's plant is more high tech than what they have in Scotland and it should be capable of making speakers to the same standard.

 

I had a tour of the Tannoy factory (5+yrs ago, when we first became dealers). The guy showing us round was apologetic at times about how "low tech" it was. The handmade processes were actually appropriate for some of the high end hi-fi products, but for mass produced speakers it was clearly lacking. He had mentioned that they were hoping to relocate to an entirely new facility, but that obviously didn't happen.

 

There were definite advantages to having a "local" factory. We once picked up some speakers when we were en route to an installation job. Lead time on more specialised product was reasonable. I'm not sure how they will continue with lines like the VQ series -stockholding was always low and the boxes were largely built to order. Air freighting large format cabinets from China is not going to be an economical option.

 

From comments I've read online, the plan is to keep the large format prestige cabinets maufacturing in Europe - where they always were. I believe the Scotland facility was just assembling everything together.

[sam.spoons]

Isn't Music Group HQ in Manilla ?

 

Fair comment, I suppose that makes them 'Global" :)

[Stuart91]

From comments I've read online, the plan is to keep the large format prestige cabinets maufacturing in Europe - where they always were. I believe the Scotland facility was just assembling everything together.

 

I'm not sure of the exact details, but I was certainly given the impression that the VQ line in particular was manufactured from scratch in Coatbridge. I saw several stages of the horn manufacture (multiple layers of MDF cut to suit then glued together and finished by hand). It's possible, I suppose, that the carcasses could have been shipped "flat packed" from a supplier and assembled on site, but if that's what was happening when I was there they certainly were coy about it.