25 Years and counting

We are proud to have such dedicated members of staff and Mark Raggett is no exception. We caught up with Mark and asked him to tell us his story as we celebrate his 25th anniversary as a Naim employee.

My life at Naim began in 1983. I was 19 years old when responding to an advert in the Southern Daily Echo newspaper, after writing the prerequisite (in those days) hand written application, I was short listed and attended an interview for the position of a PCB operative. Born and bred in Salisbury and yet at this particular point in time, I'm embarrassed to say that I hadn't ever heard of Naim Audio despite the fact the company had previously had a shop in the city centre.

Dressed in a light grey three piece suit (straight leg trousers by then as flares had gone out of fashion some 4 years earlier) for the position of a PCB operative. I was shown around by Trevor Gill, a huge Saints fan like me. A few days later the job offer dropped through my letterbox.

After 1 year in the PCB department (the first 3 weeks spent matching by hand countless input pair transistors (BC239C's - it was certainly character building stuff) I moved onto the wiring department. Most of the first two years at Naim was spent building Nait circuit boards or, complete build on the original Nait, such was the demand for this great little Amp. Three Years after starting at Naim Audio saw me promoted to the test department and a little later into a supporting role to assist the then head of service & repair.

1988 saw me leave Naim to work for another local audio company, The Chord Company making the brands cables and rising to the position of Production Manager within the 5 years I was there.

Then August 16th 1993 I started my second stint with Naim, yes just over 25 yrs ago. Reinstated as a test technician and supporting the sales team at shows. All change again in 1995 when I was promoted to Service Manager, heading up a highly skilled & dedicated team of 6 people whilst continuing my support to sales at national & regional shows brought me to the attention of the Managing director, Paul Stephenson and head of sales, Doug Graham when a Northern Area Sales Account Manager vacancy arose.

Ten years in the U.K. Sales team saw the business grow steadily with the North starting to surpass the South after 5 years of my stewardship as the largest territory in the world to be selling Naim by value. 2015 saw me swap account management of the north of the UK for Europe and the Middle East distribution markets. Just 3 yrs later the company asked me to take on the role of International Product Training Manager, the position I occupy today, supporting and training internal staff, Naim distributors and Naim retailers wherever, and whenever required.

My Naim journey has gone full circle, starting as a hands on operative, gaining a deeper understanding of the products and how they go together to, selling and presenting the product to our customers to, presenting, demonstrating and training on the features and operation of all of the current & legacy products Naim have ever produced. A journey and a series of roles I've been immensely proud to have had the opportunity to undertake.

Trust me when I say I believe I have had and continue to have the best job in the world.