Eastern promise for jukebox manufacturer as demand grows

Leeds-based business, Sound Leisure, has almost doubled production of its hand-built jukeboxes since returning from lockdown, after launching in the Asia-Pacific region.

With a ten-month waiting list, the firm has hired three people in last few months and is ready to take on more to keep up with demand. It now employs around 70 people in the UK, mainly based in Leeds.

Sound Leisure was set up by Alan Black in 1978 to sell jukeboxes to pubs and clubs. By the mid-1980s, Black was taking calls from Harrods and football teams and had started to expand overseas.

Having found buyers in Europe and the US, since Brexit Sound Leisure has sought to find international trade opportunities further afield, and has secured a growing market in China.

Now run by the founder’s family, MD Chris Black said roughly 15% of sales now come from China and that proportion is growing.

The machines are still entirely British-made, with electronics and amplification produced in Sound Leisure’s Nottingham division, metalwork in Yorkshire and Lancashire and chrome-plating in Coventry.

The team in Leeds handcrafts the wooden cabinets, player mechanisms and carries out final tests before shipment.

Black said: “Chinese consumers are becoming more and more familiar with western culture through travel and tourism.

“This means there are serious opportunities for UK companies who want to tap into a huge potential market, with a rapidly growing middle-class.

“Many of our customers appreciate the same things as us, iconic style, quality and music.

“I was speaking to a customer in China recently who was renovating an old e-type Jaguar and he needed some of the Tolex material as we use on our machines. We were able to send him some along with his new Jukebox and he couldn’t have been more grateful.”

Andrew Seaton, chief executive of the China-Britain Business Council, said: “ It was great to hear from Chris Black about their success in China.

“This is just one sign of how important China’s growth is to UK companies. China will account for two thirds of the growth in the global middle class in the next decade, equivalent to around 400 million people – that’s a huge opportunity.

“Many of the British companies we speak to are amazed by how quickly their sales rise after entering the Chinese market because of its size and dynamism.

“And Chinese consumers really appreciate strong, quality British brands.”