I flew to Slovenia Monday evening, September 30th and returned home on October 2nd. It was a short trip during which Franc Kuzma gave me a factory tour and I spoke to an international group of Kuzma distributors from the U.K., China, India, the U.K. and Turkey among other locales.
Kuzma the company has been in business for 40 plus years, manufacturing premium turntables and tonearms, and more recently phono cartridges and a series of accessories.
The Stabi S turntable and arm and the more recent 4 Point tonearm are but two examples of Franc Kuzma's ingenuity and manufacturing skills. As you'll see in the video the factory is essentially an assembly site as the CNC machining is done off-site by contractors. More recently, Kuzma has added a paint department, which Franc says is too busy to take outside work.
The two days were busy, beginning with group lunch Tuesday at a restaurant specializing in Kranj sausages. which were smoky yet mild and later, dinner at a very fine restaurant. On an extremely rainy Wednesday morning I spoke to the assembled distributors about the important of proper turntable set-up. And i did an actual set-up similar to what I do at hi-fi shows around the world.
During lunch Franc conducted a factory tour, which is this video. After lunch I spoke again about the state of the vinyl market, who's buying and who's not, the quality of reissues and the work done at various pressing plants. Though I left Thursday, the group stayed on to spend the day doing "hands on" turntable and tonearm set-ups.
Early on in his business as CDs seemed poised to take over Franc Kuzma, a trained engineer, became the Slovinian distributor for Martin Logan, Soundlabs. Rotel, Focal, Avalon Acoustics, C-J, Transparent, Benz, Muse and other companies but as the vinyl revival grew, he was able to concentrate solely on Kuzma products.
The factory is more a design, assembly and display site than a manufacturing facility. All of the complex CNC machining is done elsewhere by contract, while design assembly and more recently black and clear coat painting are done in-house at the company's paint shop.
Kuzma currently has ten employees including his son Miha and son-in-law Matjaž Žakelj. According to the company's website www.ey.com/en_si/family-enterprise/family-business-book-slovenia-2021/kuzma-d-o-o Franc plans on retiring next year from day-to-day operations, turning that over to the two young people. Right now business is strong and growing. Seems like a good time to step aside, but it's difficult to believe Franc won't be working on new and unique products to keep the company moving forward into the analog future.
Flying half way around the world on a Monday evening and returning home a few days later on Thursday was grueling but well worth the jet lag. I gained new insight into Franc and his company. I hope you enjoy the tour!
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7 окт 2024
