 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Erin
Date: 2002-09-20 14:18
I have heard that Buffet is being sold to another company--sorry if this is old news. Who is buying them out & what can be predicted about the quality of the horns?
eb
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Author: William
Date: 2002-09-20 14:33
Not certain if Buffet has been purchased by a larger company, but the general fear is that the new "parent" company will put profit ahead of quality which might lower any current Buffet manufacturing quality controls (which are already questionable). One retailer told me (in effect) "buy now because there is no gaurantee that the *new* Buffets will be any good." Wheither that proves to be true--or it was just a desparte sales pitch to get me to buy that new (old stock) expensive bass clarinet--is really anybodies guess.
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Author: William Hughes
Date: 2002-09-20 14:56
For the past year or so, the business press has been reporting that Boosey & Hawkes is close to selling its instrument division, which includes Buffet, Besson, Hofner, Keilwerth, Rico, Schreiber & Sohne, and Winter brands. This would be followed by a sale of its music publishing division, the more profitable part of its business. Several prospective purchasers for the instrument manufacturing segment have been named, with the most recent speculation centering on investment houses, rather than established competitors in the industry. As William said, what effect this might have on instrument quality and production is "anybodies' guess".
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2002-09-20 15:15
A close friend of mine owns one of the Brook Mays stores here in Texas. He told me he has a stock of R-13s with silver keys because he was unable to get any new nickel keyed models in his store and they sent the silver-keyed ones at the same price. This is a very unusual happening for him, as he is one of the largest sellers of Buffet clarinets in the country--since many of our local schools require Buffet clarinets for their students. His advise was to buy the best of what you can find now.
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Author: Mark S.
Date: 2002-09-20 15:54
William pretty much nailed it. Vivendi and Bertelsmann among others are keenly interested in the publishing and rights part of B&H. The instrument divisions have largely been a drag on the company's earnings because of the costs of the physical plant and supply chain, and have to go.
Although investment banks, funds, etc. are looking at the instrument divisions as a target, it is more likely that another major player will take them out. Flat out from the business angle, a company like Yamaha (yup, the folks who cornered the grenadilla supply) brings all the synergies necessary to make those brands profitable. They have a strong distribution network, global resources, highly efficient manufacturing techniques, tons of capital, and above all, an appetite for the professional credibility a Buffet or Keilwerth would bring them. It would be bad for a lot of the people who work at Buffet, but probably good for the company in the long haul.
All of the value in Buffet is in their designs, tools, craftsman, and their centuries' old reputation. I don't think another instrument company would mess with that. What is much more likely is that you will see the quality of the instruments preserved or even improved, but prices are going to skyrocket. We have been blessed with how cheap R13s have been historically, and that is not likely to persist under new management.
Regardless, Buffet isn't going away. It has too much potential and too great a lock on major markets like the US. If they go under, somebody will come in and buy the pieces and put the company back together. However, as long as they stay part of B&H and are cash-starved, we as clarinetists are pretty much screwed.
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Author: Bob
Date: 2002-09-20 20:41
Personally I wonder if Boosey ever had any positive influence on the Buffet reputation in the first place.
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-09-20 20:52
Gee, if things don't improve at Buffet "we as clarinetists are pretty much screwed"? That's like saying that all drivers of automobiles were pretty much screwed until Chrysler was bought by Daimler-Benz. Come on, folks, there's more to life than Buffet clarinets -- plenty of worthy competition out there, both large and small. Even if the worse happens and Buffet goes under completely (highly unlikely) you'll still have Selmer, Leblanc, Yamaha, Rossi, Howarth, Patricola, Peter Eaton, etc. providing professional-grade new clarinets. So quitcher bitchin'!
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-09-21 02:23
Mark S. wrote:
>
> What is much
> more likely is that you will see the quality of the instruments
> preserved or even improved, but prices are going to skyrocket.
That I doubt very much ... but what do I know ;^)
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2002-09-21 13:12
Good point, if you follow the history of such mergers.
The Buescher line of saxophones became the Selmer Bundy horns.
The tendency is to make instruments for the largest demographic segment with the least amount of build cost.
Sorry kiddies, that does NOT include horns that have lots of hand-tooling and final adjustments.
This sort of thing lead to the resurgence of hand-crafted flutes, back in the 1980's. You pay for quality, and it's worthwhile.
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Author: jbutler
Date: 2002-09-21 15:12
I personally do not think that Yamaha would be intereseted in Buffet. Buffet is really hurting right now. In the Houston area you could not be a Buffet dealer. There were two companies, H&H music and Houston Band, that were Buffet "end retailers". Now, Boosey and Hawkes is offering to sell to any retailer so long as they make a $50,000/year commitment to purchase instruments. They even sent me the offer, but in this "deep discount" world of retail music I decided not to.( Competition with the big stores and internet dealers.) It isn't worth my time and investment to buy at wholesale and sell for 10% over cost, if even that much. I'll just keep repairing them.
jbutler
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Author: Mark S.
Date: 2002-09-23 13:39
Probably a dead thread at this point, but to Mr. Charette's point, if Buffet were run intelligently (and that may be a giant stretch) they would improve their quality control and turn out fewer disappointing instruments. If every horn were a good one, stores wouldn't be saddled with subpar stock, and might actually be able to charge decent margins for legitimately high-quality product. That will work to the benefit of Buffet and their distributors in the long run. There is a strong incentive for an acquirer to crank up the quality control to make Buffet a successful franchise. Then again, some corporate bean counter could take it in exactly the opposite direction and run the quality into the ground.
On the "bitchin" item, my instructors (Messrs. Brody, Ambler, Marcellus, Gigliotti) play(ed) Buffet, as has every student and colleague with whom I have played. There are notable exceptions of extraordinary players like Mr. Combs going with one of the other marques named, but I think in pro and semi-pro circles in the US the R13 is something of a standard. Could we move on to another brand? Perhaps. Would it be a significant shock to the collective? You betcha.
Synonymous -- from your mouth to god's ears.
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2002-09-23 18:23
Typically, when a company buys another one because of a money related issue (which is the case 99.9% of the time), you can count on a lot of major changes going down. I think time will be the only way we'll be able to know for certain about the quality of the R-13s and Buffet instruments. Hopefully, they will maintain what they have built--otherwise they can count on the good clarinet teachers looking for options other than Buffet in the future.
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