We had created a brand name for products such as amplifiers, tuners and speakers, but I could see that there was a great market for peripheral items such as headphones and microphones. I was encouraged to move into this area by Nick Lightowler at Comet, a high-level buyer in the hi‑fi division. Nick and I were roughly the same age and he liked my cavalier approach. He also admired the way I’d screwed his Japanese suppliers by taking a chunk of the low-cost amplifier and tuner markets away from them. Our heavy advertising in the hi‑fi magazines fed straight into the Comet business model. Customers would see our adverts, see that Comet was the cheapest seller and buy what they wanted from them. We became a big supplier to Comet in the hi‑fi sector.

Nick would call me and say, ‘You know, if only we could get hold of headphones that had two knobs and three bells and five whistles, that sold for nine pounds ninety-five – they’d be a massive hit.’

I owe a lot of my success to the interactive relationship with Nick. He saw merit in advising me of what he wanted, because I could pull it off quickly. This type of feedback was manna from heaven to me. I would get in touch with Imai and ask him to send me details of headphones. In a short space of time, not only could I come up with the exact specification Nick wanted for £9.95 retail, but a whole range of headphones starting from £5.95 up to £15.95.

The speed at which Imai and I worked was incredible. Bear in mind that there was no email, no DHL, no FedEx or UPS in those days. We are talking 1973–4 – samples had to be sent by airfreight, letters had to go by express airmail. There was no fax machine, so you couldn’t send pictures instantly. And even if you did take a picture, you’d have to wait for it to be developed before you could airmail it.

I made up a range of headphones with our brand, allowing Mr Imai to work on the artwork for the boxes. They were an absolute smash hit when they got to the UK. They sold really well at Comet, as well as at G. W. Smith, Laskys, Henry’s Radio and all the other companies offering discount hi‑fi equipment. This peripheral business – where I imported goods fully assembled and ready for sale – was looking quite good.