28 October 2010. Salisbury, UK. Naim today proudly received His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent together with local dignitaries including The Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Mr. John Bush, OBE, The High Sheriff of Wiltshire, Dame Elizabeth Neville, DBE, QPM, The Chairman, Wiltshire Council, Councillor Brigadier Robert Hall, The Mayor of Salisbury, Councillor Mr. Brian Dalton and Deputy Chief Constable of Wiltshire Mr. David Ainsworth.
His Royal Highness attended to present Naim with its Queen’s Award for Enterprise, in the International Trade category of the 2010 awards. As well as a tour of the factory where he took the opportunity to meet and speak with members of the Naim production teams hand assembling Naim’s hi-fi specialist audio products. The Duke spent some considerable time in Naim’s listening room appreciating some of the Naim Label’s classical recordings. The Duke professed to a love of classical music and was presented with a complete set of Naim Label classical recordings by Naim’s managing director Paul Stephenson.
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The Duke made the point during the presentation that “You have achieved something remarkable, because you have an extraordinary reputation for creating the best audio systems in the world. These awards are not given out lightly. It is a great tribute to everybody at Naim. I wish you continued success for the future”.
The Queen’s Award celebrates the Queen’s birthday and six years of continuous growth in Naim’s export sales – a remarkable achievement given the world economy.
Export sales over this period can be visualised as the distinctive and attractive Naim cartons reaching from the ground to a height of 180 times the height of the nearby world-renowned, Salisbury Cathedral.
Naim’s organic growth over the years has been characterised by a steady increase in sales and profits together with a gradual controlled growth in exports. The last few years however have seen a rapid increase in growth especially in export markets.
This growth has been fuelled by Naim’s increasing R&D team; enabling significant product launches to be hastened. Products such as SUPERNAIT – the innovative integrated amplifier including a DAC, SuperLine – possibly the world’s finest moving coil phono stage, HDX – the hard disk player that sets the standard, and of course, the all-in-one NaimUniti have driven sales to new heights.
World recession has if anything increased the demand for Naim products. All research indicates that the consumer is now making far more considered choices and is looking for longer-term value rather than a short-term fix. Naim’s legendary product longevity and customer service are adding an increasingly important value element to a brand already internationally renowned for hi-fi products delivering the absolute essence of the musical performance.
Managing director Paul Stephenson spoke on behalf of the staff “We are extremely proud of our British design and engineering heritage and very pleased to representing the ‘Best of British industry’ around the world. This is the second time in 25 years the Queen’s Award for Enterprise has been conferred upon Naim and it’s a real motivator”. He added as a personal note “I would like to publicly thank all the Naim team who have a shared passion to create the finest audio systems in the world, and have all worked so hard to deliver the products that has enabled this growth. This along with our distributors and retailers – the extended Naim team – has made it possible”.
