UK: Electronics & Electrical - Best Factory - Krone (UK) Technique.

Sponsor - Exel Logistics.

An unprepossessing industrial estate on the outskirts of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire seems at first glance to be an unlikely place to find manufacturing excellence. A few minutes inside Krone (UK) Technique's factory is all it takes to demonstrate the perils of jumping to unwarranted conclusions.

Whilst Krone itself isn't a household name, anyone who has ever installed an extension wall socket to a domestic telephone will have had first-hand experience of the company's telecommunications products, says managing director Paul Curtis. In addition to this market, the company - the largest foreign subsidiary of its German parent - has the lion's share of the market for the connectors inside British Telecom's ubiquitous green roadside cabinets. It is also, he continues, 'doing very nicely' from the fast-growing market for data-grade connectors as businesses connect up their computers to networks and the Internet.