I would like to start out by saying that I was disappointed to learn that some bang and olufsen products such as the Beolab 4 and Beosound 10 were being made in China. Now I'm beginning to wonder where my Beosound 2 and Headphones from 2006 were manufactured?
I can understand that the execs at B&O want to make their shareholders happy but I think this was the wrong thing to do for many reasons. B&O always prided itself on Danish craftsmanship and this is also what went into their products. Many of you will say that the final assembly doesn't matter that it's just about putting a metal top on, well if it was tha simple they would have never outsourced for manufacturing is a very labour intensive thing and therefore costly. You should look at some of the manufacturing videos from Struer and see how much passion these people put into their work. It wasn't just a job for many of the workers there. As far as the internal parts maybe some circuits did come from other countries. It for country of origin rules a certain percentage must be manufactured in the place of origin. Some countries it can get as high as 70%!
Outsourcing is the act of giving up control over your production. Technically of bang and olufsen had their own factor in China it would not be outsourcing but they don't. They are made by a manufacturer that makes inferior products for other manufacturers. Yes Bang and Olufsen has outsourced in the past such as with the Beosystem 10 and Form 2 headphones which were both made in Japan. One must remember though that these products were made by a premier Japanese manufactured of electronics and that Japan itself has some of the highest labour costs in the world. In fact I have many Japanese products which are more expensive than American or European ones such as my Japanese denim jeans which were handmade by craftsmen from hand died rope in real indigo from Fukushima...
My point is that we can always find the best quality handmade craftsmen products without having to buy outsourced third world country goods. Blue jeans cable makes high quality audio cables from American made cable and Japanese connectors for as little as 10-15 bucks a foot. American Apparel mass produces t-shirts for the same price as Chinese ones but made from American cotton in America. Miele still produces vacuum all home appliances from German components in Germany. The list goes on and on even my Fujitsu laptop was assembled in a specialty built factory in Germany with the motherboard being built there as well and the screen being made in Japan. I'm sure it has 10% or more Chinese components but it's been the most reliable computer ever owned and I'm supporting German industry.
The bottom line is that nearly all companies outsource to fill their pockets if this wasn't the case they would charge 10 times less than they did before they outsourced but in fact they are charging the same or more whilst earning 10 times or more profit and it is for this principal that I refuse to buy goods outsourced to third world countries.
