NIGEL BEAUMONT / From the Bench to the Boardroom
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“ To understand fine guns, we are making what can be termed functional art ”
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NIGEL BEAUMONT IS THE CHAIRMAN OF FAMOUS BRITISH GUN AND RIFLE MAKERS, PURDEY. MORE FUNCTIONAL ART THAN STANDARD GUN, PURDEY PRIDES ITSELF IN ITS EXCLUSIVITY AND QUALITY SERVICE. THE MONTEBURY MET WITH NIGEL AT THE PURDEY FACTORY IN HAMMERSMITH TO INVESTIGATE FURTHER THE WORLD OF LUXURY GUN MANUFACTURING.
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THE MONTEBURY: COULD YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE HISTORY BEHIND PURDEY?
Nigel Beaumont: Purdey has been around since 1814, so we are coming up to two hundred years and they have always been in the high water of good guns, always making the best guns. It has always been sporting guns, so Purdey’s were originally making fowling guns and rifles. Purdey was a very famous rifle maker as well as being a very well known shotgun maker. In the nineteenth century, they were always at the forefront of development, new patents and new ways of making guns. You have to remember that in the eighteenth century, it was very competitive. There were probably one hundred and seventy five gunmakers in London alone who were competing for business, but the business was enormous in those days because you had the empire. They were selling out guns to one fifth of the planet, so the market was very big.
DO YOU THINK IT WAS MORE POPULAR TO SHOOT THEN, THAN IT IS NOW?
NB: Shooting has always been popular, and it does not seem to be diminishing as much as people say it is. In fact, it has had something of a rebirth in the last decade or so. I think it has gone into something that is much more desirable now and I think people network well through it and they find a great social dimension in it. It is something people can do in the |
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countryside with their friends.
WHAT TYPE OF MAN IS THE PURDEY CUSTOMER?
NB: He needs to be a fairly well-off man, or woman indeed. These guns are not cheap, retailing at sixty or seventy thousand before tax. They do command quite a price in the world. Generally it is a fairly grey market, but in the last ten or fifteen years, we have found that we have a younger client coming to us, people who can afford to get into these guns sooner in their lives.
YOU TRAINED AS A GUN MAKER YOURSELF?
NB: My family owned the company before it was sold to Richemont in late 1994. I stayed on as Managing Director, and it was my cousin who owned the company from the early fifties. I decided to come here after University to train as a gun maker and it has certainly helped with me keeping a foot in both camps - I can move across the company very easily. It is quite important, because I can see it from the bench to the boardroom. Purdey only has about forty or fifty people a year who buy this product. We make seventy or eighty odd guns a year, single units. That is mainly shotguns, a few double rifles, and then bolt action rifles. The USA has been the backbone of Purdey’s market for the last forty years, and when Europe is rich, Europe becomes the backbone. |
WHAT ABOUT THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS?
NB: We can make a standard gun, with standard engraving in a year to fifteen months. Engraving can become very complex and also people might be requiring certain named engravers. In that case, it is like commissioning a piece of art, in which case you have to wait for the engraver to do the decoration on the gun. Some engravings are worth more than the gun itself. To understand fine guns, we are making what can be termed functional art. Purdey will always retain more value in the world market than any other brand. That is just a fact. We put a lot of time, energy and cost into maintaining the Purdey name that has come down through time. Our service is always being looked at and we are always looking after our customers down the line. They don’t only walk away with the gun, but they always come back and we always give them what is I suppose an open-ended guarantee on the gun.
WHEN A CUSTOMER FIRST COMES TO YOU, WHAT IS THE FIRST THING THAT HAPPENS?
NB: Firstly, they tell us all about the ironwork they want on the gun. They may want a 12 gauge, 20 guage or a 28 guage. They will say what length valves they want, what chokes they want and what triggers, what kind of shape action, what weight etc. They can choose their stock and then they will have a set of dimensions taken for the gun. That will give you the stock shape for their particular physique. So, that is something that can be measured and there are a number of shooting instructors around the country that can do that. Not many of them can do it properly, but we have access to the ones that can.
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“ Purdey will always retain more value in the world market than any other brand. That is just a fact ”
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— October 2009
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