REPRODUCED FROM HI-FICRITIC
Striking the rightChord Now alm ost40yearsold,thechord com panyisstilBritishthroughand through – and proudlyindependent.ChrisFrankland talksto M D Alan Gibb aboutthe com pany’sphilosophyand som e ofthe secretsofagood cable. This year, British cable specialist The Chord Com pany w il be tw o years aw ay from its 40th anniversary.During thattim e,ithasconstantlyevolved,researched m aterialsand technologyforits ever-expanding range ofproducts,and m etthe chalengesofthe brave new digitalw orld head-on.
Iam siting in the boardroom of its W iltshire headquarters with M D Alan Gibb,keen to find out m ore about this com pany’s long journey, especialyas– while m anyiconicUK com panies haveended up inforeignownership –TheChord Com panyhasrem ained proudlyindependent. Itwas setup in 1984 to m ake cables forNaim Audio’s US retailers who were crying out for beter quality DIN-to-phono interconnects. It wasearlydaysforNaim ,and thatcom panyhad enough on theirplate keeping up with dem and fortheiram plifiers. Founder Saly Kennedy was then m aried to Naim executive PaulStephenson and The Chord Com panystarted outm aking cablesinherhom e helped by a few Naim employees in the evenings.The firstorderfrom the Statesforthe new Chrysalis cable was for250,and in 1986 things realy took of when they got a good review in m yold m agazine,Hi-FiReview. TheChord Com panynow em ploys26staf atits Am esbury base,to which itm oved to in 2003, when Alan Gibb joined the com pany. Three yearsago,there wasa significantchange atThe Chord Com pany.Gibb tels m e thatSaly had been wanting to step back from the busines and enjoyherretirem ent,butwasdeterm ined to preserve the integrity of the com pany: “She didn’twantto retire and sel itto som e faceles corporation thatwould justwantto m ake m ore m oneybyhaving everything m ade in China.She wanted thecom panyto continueto develop and grow on the basis of m aking good, honest products.
“So itseem ed very naturalforherthatthe people who had beenherethelongest,and had contributed to al ofthat,would stil have a job and thatstuf would stil be m ade here. So, three years ago, m yself,Doug M axweland Richard Senior,form ed a m anagem entbuyoutteam .Doug was doing al of the sales work,Iwas doing m ore ofthe product developm ent.” Gibb adds:“Iam stilM D,Doug issalesdirectorand Richard is operations director, but in es ence we have a third each and the realy significantdecisions need alofusto agree.Itisagood structure and we al want to cary on as before.” He tels m e that turnover has consistently grown by between 15% and 20% ayearand even in 2020,with the Covid-19 pandem ic,which created a spike in dem and with people notspending on eating outand expensive holidays,salesincreased byaround 49% . Everyone’san enthusiast Iask Gibb about the ethos behind the com pany. “Everyone in the com pany is a hi-fi or m usic enthusiast. Richard’s a good drummer. Dave Shannon sings. Dave M ardel on production is a m em berofaband,so theycare how thingssound. W e’re very focused on m aking som ething you’d wantto haveyourself:ifwedidn’twantto buyit,how could we expectsom eone else to?” Before joining the com pany,Gibb wasexportsales m anager at Linn Products in Scotland. As he explains:“Icam einto herehelp withsalesand –with the help ofsom e ofthe guyshere –we found away to export al the data from Sage into Exceland
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