Jelco tonearms closes


Takako Ichikawa of Ichikawa Jewel Co. (Jelco) announced he is closing the 100 year old company due to the impact of COVID-19 and an aging workforce.
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“For the past few years, the business has endured a decline in labor productivity due to health issues arising from our aging skilled engineers. Furthermore, due to our obsolete mechanical equipment, performing maintenance on them has become difficult.”

Here is the other part of the story behind closing doors. The company have not invested in recruiting new talent nor replaced equipments to keep up with modern times.

In any case, It’s sad and unfortunate to see them close their doors.
Compare to other tonearms in the market, I think Jelco priced too low to survive. 
Basically, they have been making the same tonearm for decades, with minor tweaks and alterations every once in a while.  Thus they had no need to purchase entirely new machinery.  It's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
imhififan"Compare to other tonearms in the market, I think Jelco priced too low to survive."
It was priced about right and I am sorry to see Jelco go but let's be candid, honest, and straightfoward in evaluating, assessing, and qualifying Jelco's products they were "budget" products designed, marketed, and intended for "beginners" to vinyl playback and there are other alternatives priced in the similar budget category to replace them the Jelco arms were never anything special.