Klarinet Archive - Posting 000455.txt from 2005/06

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Buffet-Crampon now independent
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 08:51:05 -0400


Simon Peerless wrote,
>MBO is Management Buy Out - the company
>is bought by a team from the existing management,
>usually supported (as in this case, it appears) by
>finance from a private equity finance fund. This
>seems good news as the business will be run by
>people who understand it, and the needs of their
>customers. But the equity finance fund will generally
>(I don't know any details of this specific case) still be
>looking for a good return over a relatively short period
>and so the pressure on the company to perform in
>financial terms is likely to be high.

Because the Buffet name has such huge status among clarinet players, I
think MBO sounds like a smart business decision. This move may bring
Buffet better profit than the company could achieve as part of a
conglomerate. Musicians have good reason to be suspicious of
conglomerates. Even the rumor that standards would fall *in the future*
would hurt the company's prestige.

Whether the quality of Buffet's product would have deteriorated or not
under corporate ownership, I think that musicians would naturally assume
that a conglomerate would come to perceive the prestigious logo as a
convenient front for inferior goods, as has happened so many times with
formerly-respected brand names. Look at what happened to C. G. Conn's
great saxophones after his widow sold the company. I notice Conn has now
taken back the "C.G." part of the logo that the widow refused to sell, back
in the day, but do I assume that the reversion to the old logo means this
brand will recover its former status? Hell, no. Even though I've never
even seen a Conn made under the new label, and have no specific reason to
pass prior judgment, I have no faith at all that this brand will improve,
because I've seen too many years of Conn as just another logo in the
conglomerate's catalogue, alongside the sorry likes of Armstrong and
Artley. I think it's probably too late for Conn, because people will
assume, as I do, that the logo change is just a cynical marketing ploy.
Maintaining a good reputation is so much easier than rehabilitating a
damaged reputation.

Without knowing anything more about current ownership or future plans,
Buffet's MBO alone is enough to give me the positive impression that Buffet
intends to maintain its tradition and to protect the brand name's
reputation for high quality. Now musicians can point to Buffet as the
company that refused to sell out. That impression alone is worth money.

Lelia Loban

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