Surrounded by turntables, amplifiers and speakers, Geoff Mathews is still behind the counter of the family shop he first joined as a young man.<\/p>\n
Now 74, he works alongside his sons Sam, 45, and Daniel, 48 \u2013 the third generation of a business that has survived huge changes in technology, shopping habits and the high street itself.<\/p>\n
The family business is celebrating its 80th year of trading, with Geoff Mathews steering the ship of the firm his father created<\/p>\n
But Soundcraft Hi-Fi\u2019s story began 80 years ago and more than 10 miles away, when Geoff\u2019s father Victor opened a very different kind of shop in Hythe.<\/p>\n
The family business dates back to 1946, when Victor, who had served as a photographer during the Second World War, launched Photocraft in Hythe High Street.<\/p>\n
Selling cameras, lenses, telescopes and binoculars, it moved to Ashford in 1960, with Geoff joining his father behind the counter 12 years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack then, customers would visit us on a Friday to buy a camera, bring the film back to us to be developed on the Monday, and then come in on the Wednesday to collect it,\u201d he told KentOnline.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the photography business was becoming more and more driven by price, and there were companies out there like Dixons who were hard to compete with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soundcraft Hi-fi was created out of Photocraft, which was launched in Hythe in 1946. Picture: Steve Salter<\/p>\n
As tastes and technology changed, Photocraft branched into audio equipment and became Photocraft Hi-Fi, selling photography and sound equipment side-by-side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made the transition to audio at a time when rock music was becoming prolific in the 1980s, with The Who, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin,\u201d Geoff said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the driving force when people wanted to record, recreate, and listen to the same songs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always had an interest in radio and receiving radio from international stations, and customers also enjoyed turntables at a time when there were several record shops in Ashford.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the camera trade becoming increasingly competitive, the family eventually left photography behind altogether and, in the early 1990s, the business became Soundcraft Hi-Fi.<\/p>\n
Today, it remains in Ashford\u2019s Lower High Street, specialising in high-end audio equipment and turning over about \u00a31 million a year.<\/p>\n
Photocraft Hi-Fi in 1963, when both those interested in photography and superior audio equipment frequented for the reputable service it still provides today. Picture: Steve Salter
Victor Mathews with employee Clive Castle at one of the shop’s display cabinets in the early 1960s. Picture: Steve Salter<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started the high street was very different, but when you fast forward people still want to buy the newest equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geoff has added a home cinema to the shop so customers can experience equipment before buying it, while Arcam and Naim streaming products are its bestsellers, with about three turntables sold each week.<\/p>\n
\u201cCreating that immersive sound experience is what we try to do here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we’re selling and servicing high-end world class products and still telling the same story, but with more quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sell assembled turntables, but part of our business is to custom-build them so I can take a Linn turntable someone bought in 1979 and bring it up to the same specification you would buy today.\u201d<\/p>\n
But surviving for eight decades has meant adapting to more than changing musical tastes and technology.<\/p>\n
The business was founded in Hythe in 1946, and has had a shop in Ashford’s Lower High Street for more than 60 years
Geoff Mathews is proud of how long the business his father created has been running<\/p>\n
Geoff says Brexit, the growth of online shopping and changes to Ashford town centre have all made trading more difficult, revealing Soundcraft could soon leave its long-standing central location.<\/p>\n
Asked about the biggest challenges facing the business today, he said: \u201cComing out of the EU is probably the worst thing that ever happened to us as it slowed up the supply chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt fundamentally changed our market because it meant that the delivery times were extended and distribution has become more centralised to Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur whole high street is also harder to trade in now with all the road closures, the creation of the Designer Outlet, and the destruction of Park Mall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to continue being a destination store, so we\u2019re more likely than not moving out of the town centre soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe competition is also much more intense because of Amazon and eBay, so we don\u2019t have people queuing outside the door.<\/p>\n
The home cinema on the first floor of Soundcraft Hi-Fi which allows visitors to hear their desired acoustics
Soundcraft Hi-Fi remains a staple of Ashford town centre<\/p>\n
“But we adapt as best as we can and have a good website – about one-third of our sales are online now.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, our business is very high on referrals and we spend more time going out to customers\u2019 homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those who have remained loyal to the shop through its changing guises is historian Steve Salter, from Kennington, who has been visiting since the early 1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always come in to see what the latest equipment and audio is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a success story because it\u2019s developed with the times and is one of Kent\u2019s leading audio specialists.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, I\u2019ve bought amplifiers, CD players, speakers, and even things when they were a photography business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashford resident and historian Steve Salter is among the regular visitors to Soundcraft Hi-Fi
Vinyls remain a bestseller at Soundcraft Hi-Fi<\/p>\n
Eight decades after Victor Mathews opened Photocraft in Hythe, the cameras and rolls of film have been replaced by turntables, speakers and streaming systems \u2013 but the family behind the counter remains the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am proud,\u201d Geoff said. \u201cI never expected my two boys to both be here alongside me today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrounded by turntables, amplifiers and speakers, Geoff Mathews is still behind the counter of the family shop he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1187487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[605,51,2082,609,495,69243,16,15],"class_list":["post-1187486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ashford","tag-business","tag-consumer","tag-human-interest","tag-kent","tag-tenterden","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117217273034788501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1187487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}