I remember when Raymond Cooke bought the site of the Kent Engineering Factory at Tovil in 1961. It was a large bombed out steel works. Kent had a lot of active coal mines until the 1980s. So they have plenty of space. They are only 15 miles from the Medway Towns, which is a huge urban conurbation along the Medway. It has a long history of skilled manufacture. They built nuclear subs and large naval surface surface vessels until Chatham dockyard closed. There was also ship building at Rochester and Strood. They have Eliot automation and used to build heavy plant at the Winget and Blawknox plants. They were also the site of CAV diesel injector pumps which were on many American diesel engines. They also built Sea planes at Rochester.
So there is a long history of skilled labor in the area and there still is significant manufacturing going on. I don't think there will be any problem increasing the skilled labor force at Tovil, not at all. I am certain they can build to as high and probably a higher standard at Tovil than China.
As KenM posted, KEF Reference series and above are made outside of China, others are made in Malasia, some cabinets are made in Poland, but if KEF and others want to change, it will require China selling the companies because we all know THEY'LL want something if outsiders use 'their' designs, whether they actually designed something, or not.
WRT long history of skilled labor- the US had a long history of that but like many things, it goes away if not used for a long time.
WRT "I am certain they can build to as high and probably a higher standard at Tovil than China", why? High standards only require trained workers who can maintain whatever standards have been set, managing variances and using practices in manufacturing that assure a minimum of problems. Currently, China is making items with high enough precision that the designers aren't moving manufacturing to some other place- they have come a long time since the days when just about anything made of cast iron was recycled because it wasn't left to relieve stress, leading to deformation. The power tool/machinery market depends on cast iron staying put and they're making it happen. Taiwan is another country used for these, often with better QC, but if you know people using new power tools, you know that many are hard core supporters of the brands they choose, to the point of denigrating others.
As I have posted many times, I don't like China being raised to the level of being the main source of goods. Allowing them MFN was a mistake and if you/others aren't aware, some Democrats were against that, including Pelosi and Schumer- they spoke on this in 1996.
The markets for products caused this by wanting low prices, high labor costs caused companies and corporations to move manufacturing offshore and China, by benefitting from the incredible increase in revenue and their abuse of intellectual property rights, has bought far too many brands and corporations, as well as real estate in the US and, I assume, other countries.
This image is just for tools and doesn't include medical equipment, electronics, auto parts & assemblies, etc.
