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As a user then Puncher and Diznik's comments apply to me. I don't mind where it is made, the technical and aesthetic design as well as cost is the essence.
If I were a Danish politician, then I might have to think more deeply. After all if a company ceases to exist then it can contribute nothing to the country. If in all respects it has actually moved away this has the same effect.
John
TWG
This seems a CEO fault as he seems to act only for the shareholders and NOT for the company. Now the Beolab 5 cost them 1000 Euro to manufacture and they sell them for 17.000 here in Germany.
There are other nice companies, too!
How do you know of the cost to manufacture is the correct, i know from experience that theres always a large mark up on manufacture goods to retail but 17 times seems quite high if the cost is 1000 euro in denmark why not keep it in denmark.
There many company strategy that when times are good build in govermant subsidised factorys abroad but when lean go back to the homeland factories maybe that could be part of the reason rather than just cost
My BL5's are made in Denmark, but they are older.
Just to get things clear: I have no reservations agianst chzech products at all, in fact some peoply including me think for instance that Skoda is building with the Superb the better Passat then Volkswagen. There are surely great workers and craftsman in Chzechoslovakia. And there are a lot other examples like Skoda.
BUT: The price of a product should not only be based on quality, design, technology. It should reflect it´s origin too, like it´s with Skoda. A good product made in a -relatively- low wage country for a lower price then the Volkswagen. And here I have a problem with the actual trend in Struer. When buying a EUR 17.000,- plus speaker and having to read on it´s bottom "Country of origin: Chzech" I get the same, slightly bad feeling when buying the average Hugo Boss Black Label shirt made in Hongkong. Or right before Xmas I was trying on a Burberry coat. I liked it a lot and wanted to buy it, but while taking it off I had to read in the back "Made in Thailand". The epitome of brit chic made in East Asia? Sorry, not for me. I let it on the hanger and left. I felt cheated.
If buying a product for a premium I just not want something good for me, I want to support the local economy too. I do this everytime as long as I can afford it. Call me a romatic, but that´s how I feel and try to act. Other producers still sell high-priced goods with high-quality requirements made in high-wage countrys. And they are not only surviving but doing good business. German company Miele would be an example for this tactics. So I wonder why Struer thinks they need to escape and build their stuff in the former eastern bloc. It surely can´t be caused by low profit due to low prices. More like a long row of wrong decisions. Sad.
.b
Just to get things clear: I have no reservations agianst chzech products at all, in fact some peoply including me think for instance that Skoda is building with the Superb the better Passat then Volkswagen. There are surely great workers and craftsman in Chzechoslovakia. And there are other examples like this.
BUT: The price of a product should not only be based on quality, design, technology. It should reflect it´s origin too. And here I have a problem with the actual trend in Struer. When buying a EUR 17.000,- plus speaker and having to read on it´s bottom "Country of origin: Chzech" I get the same, slightly bad feeling when buying the average Hugo Boss Black Label shirt made in Hongkong. Or right before Xmas I was trying on a Burberry coat. I liked it a lot and wanted to buy it, but while taking it off I had to read in the back "Made in Thailand". The epitome of brit chic made in east Asia? Sorry, not for me. I let it on the hanger and left. I felt cheated.
If buying a product for a premium I just not want something good for me, I want to support the local economy too. I do this everytime as long as I can afford it. Call me a romatic, but that´s how I feel and try to act. Other producers still sell high-priced goods with high-quality requirements made in high-wage countrys. And they are not only surviving but doing good business. German company Miele would be an example for this tactics. So I wonder why Struer thinks they need to escape and build there stuff in the former eastern bloc. It surely can´t be caused by low profit due to low prices. More like a long row of wrong decisions. Sad.
.b
I don't know if the Beolab 5 costs them 1000 Euro to produce, it was just a guess!
I feel the same way Beoberlin does: It looks like B&O is realy cheating on us! They can keep their "Made in Czech" stuff and buy it semself! Not for me anymore.
As Beoberlin cleary stated there are enough companies that do realy good business exactly because they manufacture their stuff in their home country. That's why their customers are happy to buy their high quality products and happily pay the price for it.
I don't pay 17000 Euro on a pair of danish speakers that are made in Czech!
Examples:
- Access music (Hardware virtual analog synthesizers, german Company, made in Germany)
- Miele (Home appliances, German company, made in Germany)
- T + A (Hifi company, german, Made in Germany)
- Loewe (Audio/Video company, german, made in Germany)
- Accuphase (real Highend Audio company, japanese, Made in Japan)
Bang & Olufsen made in Czech? Go away with that!
And again: Please contribute to the list of products made in Denmark so that we can be sure which one to buy and which to left out!
I don't like it took! Built quality is fantastic but the prices went up over the past years. They never reduced prices after changing production site.
Maybe they put all the parts from Denmark together in Czech?
This reminds me on my recent refusal to buy Hermes !!! table mats. One costs 112 Euro for plain textile without stitchery and guess what: MADE IN VIETNAM. Even cheaper than in China!
German company Miele would be an example for this tactics.
We own several Miele devices too, "Made in Germany." But it appears that Germany is a low-cost location when compared to Denmark. For instance:
I have been thinking of this discussion trying to figure out if this is really a problem. I must admit that it didn't bother me that BV8, Beo5, or Beotime were not made in Denmark. In fact I never thought about it. However when it appeared that maybe my Beolab 9s were not made in Denmark, I did feel disappointed at the possibility at least for a few minutes. I am planning to buy a Beovision 10 when its available in the US. I already know it is not assembled in Denmark. However when thinking about Beolab 5s, I wondered if I would buy them if the dealer told me they are made in the Czech Republic. I'll make that decision later.
I am not going to check the label on my Miele vacuum cleaner nor am I going to pull out my Beosound 5 to see where its was made. This can get crazy. Maybe the answer for me is that it is enough that B&O products are a Danish design made in the EU. I guess that notion will not satisfy others in this forum but it seems to work for me. After all is a BMW assembled in Alabama not a German car?
All video products is assembled in Struer, except the BV8 series. They are assembled in Taipei.
B&O uses Samsung panels in their LCD line video products, and Panasonic in their Plasma products.
This does NOT make a B&O video product, a Samsung or a Panasonic product. The panel is one thing, the most important thing is the engine showing the images on the panel. This is one of the things, that makes a B&O video product different from all the other products on the marked. In the older days, B&O used Phillips picture tubes. But it was not a Phillips product.
Loewe is using Sharp panels, this does not make Loewe a Sharp though.
Its just ignorance to think otherwise.
BS9000 is assembled in Struer, due to its complexity.
Beosound 5 / Beomaster 5 is assembled in Struer.
B&O uses Flextronics to supply PCB boards. All main PCB boards, for the phones, the speakers and so on. Are made in Skive Denmark. The plant used to be B&O but, was sold to Flextronics a couple of years ago. They are still mainly producing for B&O at that plant.
Audio products, such as speakers are now assembled in the Cezh rep. On a B&O made assembly facillity. The facillity is more or less a exact copy of the facillities for assembly in Struer. By this, I mean everything used for assembly, is made in Denmark. The software used to secure, all parts are put at the right places; is developed in Struer. The leading team, is mainly people from Struer, and so on. The only thing, different in the cz rep. facillity is the workers.
Most of the parts, if not all of them. Are still made in the Struer.. All the alluminium parts, speaker units etc. etc.
Phones, remotes and other peripherials are also assembled in CZ.
B&O made the production/assembly facillities in CZ Rep. them selves, and owns the buildings..
Buying B&O products, means that youre still paying for a danish product; though it have been around another country, in the making.
So no worries, until B&O is sold to some evil chinees empire or something :-)
I don't see any problem at all. Even if you are a little bit protectionist, you have to understand that Czech Republic is TOTALLY EQUAL to Denmark, or Germany, or France : it's EUROPE!!! (I don't speak about product quality, this topic itself proves that there is no visible difference between products made in cz or dk)
Come on guys, you're thinking that stopping buying cz products will help your country : ok, do that, stop buying everything made in cz rep. What will happen? cz rep will not develop itself, the strong inegalities between european countries will stay... And Denmark will... Continue to give a LARGE amount of money (as other wealthy european countries) to cz rep...
So what do you prefer? An equal Europe with the same average wage, or an inequal europe with poor countries living with money from other countries?
I understand protectionism against China or the like, where we do not exactly understand where our money goes (not to the workers, but to the government...), but against an other european country!! Come on, we're in 2010, and there are still wealthy people here that doesn't understand Europe???
Denmark & Czech Republic is the same country: Europe!
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