The factory office where Raymond Cook first founded KEF

Developed jointly with the BBC

Bextrene Cone changed the speakers!!!

Kent is a county located in the southeast of London.

Maidstone is known as the Garden of England, blessed with beautiful scenery and a mild climate. After a one-hour ride on a British Rail train from Victoria Station in London through the greenery, you’ll arrive in Maidstone, Kent’s largest city. This is where KEF is based.

KEF’s president, Raymond Cooke, founded the company in 1961.

“At first, this old barracks used by the military was our only building. Inside it we had both an office and a factory…” Raymond recalls with nostalgia. The barracks are still used as a repair shop today.

Raymond also had a deep connection with the BBC, having worked in the BBC Design Department on recording-related projects such as microphones and tape recorders until 1956. During that time, he became interested in new materials for speaker diaphragms, and after leaving the BBC, he joined a speaker manufacturer called Wharfedale, which later led to the founding of KEF.

KEF’s current factory has evolved in a way that is hard to imagine from the small barracks it was in when the company was founded. This building houses the factory and acoustics research lab on the office grounds.

The River Medway flows through Maidstone. The KEF factory is located along this river.