PRESS RELEASE

%n%Sandberg makes a big effort to explain to the market how important it is to buy a good quality cable. Far too many people, whether they are consumers, dealers or wholesalers, are under the misapprehension that "a cable is just a cable". This means that there are thousands of consumers who have invested in elegant, expensive flat screens, fast network equipment and other high-performance devices which will not achieve the performance they are capable of. And this is all down to buying a cheap cable.

Martin Hollerup, Managing Director of Sandberg A/S, is also a qualified electronics engineer. He certainly knows what the issue is. He says: "I put a lot of effort into making sure we can vouch for the products we sell. With my theoretical background I'm really concerned about some of the products I see our rivals putting on the market. These range from Cat6 cables, which will never be able to pass a high frequency test, to USB cables that are not thick enough, something that impacts on data packets and thus speed, and also to VGA cables, where the choice of raw material, internal shielding and external shielding is not given much thought. The quality is reduced in every area in order to meet the market's increasing and one-sided demand for lower prices."

The technophile MD continues: "In a way I can understand why lots of manufacturers are tempted by that sort of solution; the market is after all constantly pressing for the lowest price. This pressure is passed on to the manufacturers, who are usually based in China, and this is where compromises on anything from raw materials to quality control are necessary in order to meet price demands and win orders. The credit crunch which has led to factories closing and companies folding every day is increasing the pressure, and the quality requirements of many manufacturers are taking a back seat to low prices. For many dealers a cable is just a cable, and most simply don't think this through properly. The consumers are the ones who will actually lose out in the end. I really wish that more dealers would open their eyes to this problem and start to focus more on quality and providing their customers with sound advice. As far as I'm concerned, no-one should sell their customers a stylish flat screen and then hand them a thin, spaghetti-like cable to go with it. Even if a really good cable costs two or three times as much as a discount cable, it pays for itself eventually; don't forget that the actual cost is tiny compared to that of say a new flat-screen TV."

You cannot mistake Martin Hollerup's enthusiasm: "We simply don't believe in compromise at Sandberg. Take it or leave it. I am well aware that we lose out on some customers because we don't have the world's lowest cable prices, but the thing is it simply costs more to make decent products. Sandberg wants to be known as a company that supplies a cable that is fit for purpose. I believe that this will turn customers into loyal repeat customers. I tend to compare cables with the mortar in a house: What's the point of super duper building materials if you skimp on the mortar? The house will still fall down."

The illustration below shows an example of the difference between a cheap cable and a decent cable.