MT AWARDS FOR MANUFACTURING: Highly commended best electronics and electrical plant; The IEE Award - Bowers & Wilkins

The management policies in this industry are antediluvian,' fulminates Jeremy Evans, head of manufacturing at loudspeaker makers Bowers & Wilkins, lamenting that he can't source more components locally, or even in Europe, for the company's world-leading speaker range. Instead, it must go to China for the required quality and cost.

But then, the Worthing company aims to embody the exact opposite of the craft-based, one-man-and-a-dog management style that has seen the once-prominent UK hi-fi industry in steady retreat before better-organised rivals: high-end (B&W's extraordinary-looking Nautilus speakers sell to the likes of Bill Gates for dollars 35,000 a pair), brand-led, commanding a dominant world market share in its upscale segment, and supporting the Rolls-Royce image with equally slick manufacturing in a purpose-built new facility.

Until 1997, as Evans admits, B&W was more the rule than the exception.