Klarinet Archive - Posting 000477.txt from 2005/06

From: "Jay Webler" <webler@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Buffet-Crampon now independent
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 17:17:29 -0400

I have heard, at one of the stores that I teach at, that we can
expect a major price increase because of this move. Time will
tell.

Jay Webler

-----Original Message-----
From: Lelia Loban [mailto:lelialoban@-----.net]
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 8:49 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Buffet-Crampon now independent

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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