Purdey’s $52,000 Entry-Level Gun Helps Richemont Broaden Brand
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By Thomas Mulier
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- James Purdey & Sons, the gunsmith owned by Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, will expand production of its entry-level, 31,625-pound ($52,000) shotguns this fiscal year, broadening the company’s market as the wealthiest luxury- goods shoppers retrench.
Purdey will make about 100 guns in the period, and about 25 of those will be the year-old Sporter model, according to Richard Purdey, a sixth-generation descendant of the founder and a director and former chairman of the brand.
The gunmaker adapted technology that Geneva-based Richemont uses for watches like Cartier to create less expensive parts for the Sporter, he said, reducing the time spent filing metal by hand. Prices for Purdey’s bespoke guns, built by 30 craftsmen over 600 hours, start at 66,125 pounds.
“It’s going to enable us to reach a slightly broader market,” Purdey said at the gunsmith’s sole shop in Mayfair, London, surrounded by heads of wildebeest and buffalo. “We are with our bespoke guns right at the top end of a little market, which is very, very small.”
Sporters are ideal for clay-pigeon shooting and may win new clients who later commission a bespoke gun for game, while their light weight may appeal to female shooters as more women take up the sport, Purdey said.
Risk to Cachet
Purists respond by saying cheaper guns may risk Purdey’s cachet and cannibalize demand for the more expensive guns, according to Florian Thaler, a London-based shooting enthusiast who trades commodities for a living. Other hunters are turning to vintage, restored guns in the current economy rather than shelling out cash for a Sporter.
“There is a real danger of the brand being diluted, pushing established clients towards niche players,” Thaler said. “Winning new clients at the cost of old ones should not be in their interest. I’d rather wait till I can afford the real thing” than buy a Sporter.
Purdey’s rivals making so-called best London guns, an industry founded by exiled French Protestants in the 18th century, include Holland & Holland Ltd., owned by Chanel, and Boss & Co. The industry is worth about 50 million pounds, Purdey estimates.
“The market is definitely growing,” said Gavin Gardiner, an auctioneer who sells vintage sporting guns. “Buyers today are young, fashionable and wealthy, whereas the gun buyers of the past were older gentlemen with less money to spend.” Still, the gunmaker reached peak output in about 1900, producing as many as 350 guns per year at its west London factory.
No Large Numbers
Purdey could eventually raise production of Sporters to about 30 a year, though 100 would be impossible, Richard Purdey said. “We don’t talk large numbers at Purdey,” he said.
Purdey’s annual sales are about 7.5 million pounds. That’s about 1 percent of revenue for Richemont, which is controlled by South African billionaire hunting enthusiast Johann Rupert and bought the brand in 1994. Rupert plans to become Richemont’s chief executive officer in April, the company said last month, after first-half operating profit slumped 39 percent and the current chief developed health problems.
Purdey must “face some pressure, just like the other Richemont brands, despite the fact that they’re smaller and perhaps a hobby of Mr. Rupert’s,” said Rene Weber, an analyst at Bank Vontobel AG in Zurich. “Even the very rich do not go for the real high-end anymore. To broaden its audience, it needs a gun that’s cheaper.”
Scraping Metal
Richard Purdey, who shoots a Purdey gun built in 1899, said his ancestor “would have embraced with open arms” new technology to make the Sporter were he alive. The high-precision “computer numerical control,” or CNC machines, are accurate to less than one thousandth of an inch. They make parts such as screws and winding stems for watches.
“The craftsmen are still able to focus their artistry and their skill,” Purdey said. “They just don’t have to spend as much time as they used to just scraping off metal.”
Purdey was named maker of the best shotgun by Field & Stream magazine in 2007. With Britain’s grouse and partridge seasons more than two months underway, some Purdey enthusiasts stick to 1930s models, saying they’re as usable as newer ones if maintained properly. Vintage Purdeys are also much cheaper to purchase at auction than a new model, and are available without delay, compared with a 3-month wait for a Sporter and much longer for a bespoke gun.
Richard Royden, who runs a special-situations and merger- arbitrage team at GFI in London, inherited his 1930s Purdey from his grandfather, Sir John Royden, the fourth Baronet. “It’s probably as good as it was new” after a recent tuneup, he said by phone after shooting pheasants near Hungerford, England. “If I hadn’t inherited it, I wouldn’t blow 60 grand on a gun.”
About 480,000 people in the U.K. hunt game, spending 2 billion pounds a year, according to a 2006 study by Pacec, a consultancy.
Hip Flasks
Besides guns, the Purdey store near Park Lane in London’s Mayfair district sells hunting clothes in waterproof tweed and hand-knitted socks emblazoned with flags. The building, called Audley House, dates from 1882 and bears the scars of 1940’s German bombs on its exterior marble. Shoppers can admire the animal scenes on the scroll engraving of the guns, and peruse Purdey cigar cases, hip flasks and cufflinks in the shape of lions, elephants and buffalo.
“They’ve got a pretty good brand, and I think they could exploit it more,” GFI’s Royden said. He said he’s bought shooting socks, gun sleeves and a coat at the Purdey store.
Purdey, who retired as chairman of the business in 2007, says a second shop is unlikely after the company closed outlets in Paris and in New York in the past decade. “Part of the fun of ordering a Purdey is coming here.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Geneva at tmulier@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 6, 2009 19:01 EST
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