TopicUk Business Magazine

Cricketing legend and Australian trade envoy Lord Botham visits Leeds

The Editor -

In his role as the Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Australia, former cricketer Lord Botham OBE visited Sound Leisure in Leeds. The manufacturer of classic jukeboxes, which has exported to Australia for over 20 years, has sold 15 of its jukeboxes to Australia in the last 12 months.

Employing more than 40 people at its Leeds head office and manufacturing centre, the £5m revenue family-owned Sound Leisure has again been named as an Export Champion for 2023 and sells 80% of its products overseas to customers in over 40 countries worldwide, including Australia, the US and Japan. Celebrities, royalty and famous athletes are among the buyers of its retro-design state of the art vinyl and digital jukeboxes.

“Sound Leisure is a mainly export business, and anytime we can move forward our knowledge of overseas markets, and share our experiences and insights with other exporters and businesses, we grab the opportunity,” said Sound Leisure director Mike Black.

Mike escorted Lord Botham on a tour of the firm’s state-of-the-art, 80,000 sq ft manufacturing facility, where he was shown how Sound Leisure classic jukeboxes are meticulously hand built by a team of skilled craftsmen.

Mike said: “It was great to welcome Lord Botham to our factory and he was really impressed to see the levels of skill and craftsmanship that go into building these intricate and innovative machines which we have been producing here in Leeds for 45 years.

“We’re a family-run British manufacturing business and exports, including to Australia, make up a huge amount of our business. We’re proud to have been named an Export Champion for the Northern Powerhouse once again this year by the Department of Business and Trade.”

Lord Botham’s role as trade envoy is an unpaid and voluntary one, aimed at boosting British business in Australia.

The factory tour was followed by an Export Champions round table, organised by the Department of Business and Trade and held at the Sound Leisure manufacturing facility.