BFA AGM 2002
The British Federation of Audio
PO Box 365
Farnham
GU10 2BD
Phone: + 44 (0) 1428 714616
Fax: + 44 (0) 1428 717599
e-mail:
chrisc@british-audio.org.uk
HELD ON WEDNESDAY, 24th APRIL 2002, CHARING CROSS HOTEL, THE STRAND, LONDON, WC2N 5HX.
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
The BFA Chairman, Steve Harris, outlined the primary administrative changes that had taken place during the past year following the demise of BREMA. These were the need to find new premises and the requirement to change status in order to become a company limited by guarantee. These changes had been conducted smoothly and without disruption to the Association's activities thanks to the efforts of the secretary Chris Cowan. The Federation had maintained its links with the BREMA/CEBA division of the FEI, soon to become Intellect, enabling it to continue with its valuable statistics service to members and access to commercial & technical information. Feedback on Technical matters had not been as good as the Federation would have wished, with BREMA/FEI being almost exclusively concerned with Digital TV. Arrangements had been made to dramatically improve this service.
Following a targeted recruiting campaign the Chairman was pleased to note that membership had increased substantially over the past year. It had peaked at 45 but dropped back slightly — to 43 — due to some members experiencing financial difficulties or terminating trading.
The Chairman then highlighted two issues of importance to members. Firstly on safety, he understood that recent pronouncements indicated that a proposed requirement for manufacturers to change to "switch-mode" power supplies had been revoked. This revision would be a welcomed by the audio industry. Secondly, he drew members’ attention to the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. This Directive was due for implementation in 2004/05 and would affect all manufacturers. Companies would be levied for all products sold, including historic and orphaned waste, and he exhorted members to take note of this impending legislation and consider with their accountants the need to make provision for it in their books.
Turning to Exhibitions, the Chairman reported that the Federation had again sponsored groups to CES Las Vegas and the HES, Frankfurt. Both shows had been successful and he estimated that nearly £300,000 (up to and including Frankfurt 2002) would have been returned to the UK audio industry since the BFA had taken up this sponsorship role. Arrangements for the BTI sponsorship were currently under review and may affect the ground rules for 2003/04. Bids for inclusion in the latter would be called for this summer and the Federation would be making applications again for four shows. It was disappointing not to obtain support for the Moscow show and renewed efforts to obtain funding will be made.
The BFA had sponsorship for the HES, Frankfurt this year and seventeen companies had been recruited. The BFA, in conjunction with What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision and Gramophone magazines, would be holding a reception on the first evening of the show to promote the UK Audio industry. Members were invited to attend and bring their German distributors and any Press/Media representatives.
The Chairman then enlightened the audience with some trade statistics which he agreed to circulate to anyone who wanted a copy.
Finally, he informed the body that he was currently undertaking an MBA. He intended producing a dissertation on "Critical Success Factors for British Hi-Fi Companies Exporting to the USA" which the BFA Board of Directors had kindly agreed to sponsor in part, providing his report was made available to the membership.
Questions
USA Audio Trade Associations
The BFA President, Lord Gowrie, asked whether the Federation had any ties with a sister organisation in the USA. He observed that he always visited specialist audio retailers when in the USA and audio products there appeared to be either cheap or very expensive. The answer to his question is no.
Product Licenses
Referring to the Chairman's information on product data, Mike Creek (Creek Audio Ltd) asked if we knew how many of the DVDs sold had been licensed. Dumping should not be allowed as it was unfair competition and penalised British companies. Continuing, he understood that the Customs in France had been impounding recently a sizeable quantity on unlicensed DVDs.
Responding to the question, John Dawson (A & R Cambridge) replied that a basic DVD license cost about 19/20$US. He doubted that many Chinese DVD manufacturers had licenses. However, a product often had a number of licenses tied to it depending on the features involved and whether companies met all the license criteria was questionable. Responding to a further question regarding the UK manufacturers, John considered that the larger UK manufacturers probably paid for all the licenses involved.
Concluding the discussion, Lord Gowrie offered to raise the issue of dumping and unfair trading with the Government if the Federation had sufficient information to put together a strong enough case.