Asprey, The UK'S Top Luxury Brand, Goes Out Of The Mire: Not To Be Fashions But To Make Classics.

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From P to 1847, there is a splendid shop at the end of old Bond Street in London, which is the head office of Asprey, the leading British luxury brand.

It has witnessed numerous family ups and downs, cooperation disputes and Zhu men's grudges.

The geomancy turns, and now its turn.

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< p > like flowery beauty, it is always like a fleeting time.

The building was designed by the UK's top a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/", the designer /a /a Norman Foster, and interior decoration by David Mlinaric.

As we all know, there are fewer and fewer customers here. Designers come and go. Despite the introduction of new products, profits continue to decline.

People who have worked in Asprey are very sad. The feelings of the presidents are undoubtedly the deepest.

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< p > however, Paddy Byng, the current director of < a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_f.asp" > Asprey < /a >, and the New York financier, John Rigas, as president, are very confident.

7 years ago, Rigas's Sciens group bought the Asprey brand.

"In 2012-2013, we estimate that we will not be able to make profits, because most of the funds have been invested in the company, but the company will not be able to go on track until next year.

However, sales by March 2012 increased by 11% compared with March 2011, with sales of jewellery increased by 36% and silver sales by 18%.

Sales between April 2012 and September increased by 30% compared with 2011.

The turnover in 2012-2013 is expected to reach US $37 million.

Meanwhile, Luxury Institute is an independent high-end luxury Research Institute in New York. According to its latest survey of high-end consumer groups in the United States, Asprey ranks second in the luxury jewelry brand in 2012.

For those who look forward to the revitalization of traditional British brands, this is undoubtedly good news.

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< p > < strong > from peak to decline < /strong > < /p >

< p > many readers are very familiar with the history of Asprey.

In 1781, William Asprey, a retailer, founded a shabby cloth store, which began with high-end consumer groups.

At that time, the ideal of Asprey was to provide top class luxuries for well-educated English gentlemen.

But British gentlemen are a very complex group. It is not easy to cater to their tastes.

So Asprey began selling all kinds of rare treasures to fill the gentlemen's houses.

During the heyday of Asprey, it collected treasures from all over the world, including the Middle East, China, Africa, Japan and even Himalaya Range. All these fine life ornaments were shipped back to England and sold to specific old customers.

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< p > early twentieth Century, Asprey has become the pronoun of "British elegance", and royalty often patronize.

Asprey is also the first choice for people to choose fashionable luxury goods. There are porcelain, crystal, silverware, jewelry, rare books, exotic wood carvings, etc. people often come here to pick strange gifts.

At the same time, Asprey's brand is well known all over the world. India kings, kings of Islam, chiefs of Arabia, aristocrats in all parts of the United Kingdom and kings of European countries all come here.

By 1970s, Asprey was still enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with LV and Hermes.

But then the two French brands developed rapidly, and Asprey, in Rigas's words, "stuck in the luxury reform and missed the opportunity."

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Less than p years later, the board of directors staged endless business competition, which was accompanied by a sharp decline in brand profits.

In 1995, Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei Sultan bought the brand at a price of 24 million 300 thousand.

Soon after, Asprey exposed scandals and sold inferior jewellery at extremely high prices. This is a fatal blow to a hundred years old brand.

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< p > 2000, to save Asprey is the two "White Knight", namely entrepreneur Cao Qifeng and Lawrence Stroll, who bought the 1998 Asprey Garrard combined with 10 million pounds.

Before, Cao Qifeng and Stroll jointly bought Tommy Hilfiger in 1989. After several times their profits, they succeeded in listing in 1992.

They are willing to dig their own pockets and cherish their ideals.

At that time, they wanted to build Asprey & Garrard into a world-class luxury brand, a British Hermes or LV.

Stroll once said, "we will never give up Asprey & Garrard." forever "means that I will pass it on to my children.

However, when the voice had not yet landed, they pferred it to HSBC.

After that, Rigas bought the heavily indebted Asprey & Garrard at $4 million 400 thousand and sold the Garrard part of the business for $1 million 450 thousand.

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< p > < strong > brand only earn money < /strong > /p >

< p > there is still a long night to go before the dawn of Asprey.

I once doubted Rigas's ability, after all, his expertise was to save the company that was on the verge of bankruptcy.

He himself found it far more difficult than he thought. "The high-end luxury industry is complex and has a long cycle.

You must correct every link, including product, quality, supply chain, aesthetics, color, style, and pricing.

Like former presidents, he found that Asprey was different from other companies experiencing business scandals - it never lost its shine.

This brand, as Stroll told me a few years ago, "may be a bit dim, but it has never been completely destroyed, and even the fraud scandal has never been ignored by the world."

In addition, as Rigas pointed out, "most of the top luxury brands are closely related to royalty and aristocracy, while in the world, only Asprey and Russian brand Faberg e have this honor."

He believes that Asprey is naturally the darling of the luxury goods industry. "Some brands focus on jewelry, some brands focus on accessories, and only a few brands can be called lifestyle brands. Of course, Hermes is one of them."

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< p > director Byng participates in company operation every day. What strategy is adopted to make him and John Rigas get through his head?

Byng said: "John wants to bring the company back to the top of the luxury industry."

But we must know, "what is luxury today?" Rigas has a clear concept: "a unique personality is very important.

Nowadays, luxury goods are becoming more and more popular. In order to enable customers to accept the design of products, many companies neglect an important reason why people buy luxury goods. They discover the beauty of accidents in their lives.

We have to try to satisfy this mentality, which makes people feel that they can always find surprises in Asprey shopping.

When people hang around in the handmade shops in Paris and Florence, they will spend money on things that look very special.

Many people do not understand the value of luxury goods, which has nothing to do with their price tag.

A small thing, such as the silver pencil sharpener on my hand, is not expensive, but it is a luxury for me, because it looks so perfect.

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< p > Rigas continues: "my vision runs counter to the strategies that many companies are implementing.

They want you to change something new every three years, and we hope you can like every item you buy, spend 30 years or even pass it on to your children.

The former is very tempting for money, but if you give up your principles in order to earn money, you will lose your soul and lose your meaning, and you will no longer be yourself.

He also believes that "we must have such an idea and we must uphold it.

We have to leave the catalogue and ask ourselves, "what is the soul of this brand?" "/p".

< p > < strong > Asprey, the process and aesthetics < /strong > /p >

< p > their ideal is that customers can regard Asprey as a necessary place to choose gifts. Any luxuries purchased here are meant to express gratitude and love.

Therefore, commodities must be "genuine, creative and elegant".

Speaking of technology, Byng said: "we have to consider the needs of Chinese customers, so urge our craftsmen to change their production methods.

The pressing and printing process of silverware is different from that of East Asia. We use hand-made products. "

Although most of Asprey's products were designed and produced in the UK, many craftsmen were specially invited from the famous Italy glass industrial center, including champagne cups, red wine cups, neck flasks, branch candlesticks, etc.

"We want these technologies to last forever," Byng said. "This is what Asprey has always advocated."

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< p > besides, Rigas and Byng all think that the "a href=" http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp "luxury industry" /a "should be developed around the characteristics of small scale and individuation, so that customers can truly love the products they buy. So they decided to concentrate on creating Asprey retail stores in London and New York, but the brand's personality orientation is still dominated by the Atlantic on the other side of the UK.

As Byng said, "we invite the sharp jewel jeweler Shaun Leane to join the product in order to root the product in British aesthetics.

His Woodland series of jewelry is typically represented by English woodland plants, such as acorns, blackberries, leaves and so on, which are sold out at a price of 1600 pounds.

Of course, British aesthetics can be expressed in many ways, for example, we will introduce humor and wild elements in the design.

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< p > < /p >.

< p > < strong > do not do fashion, only do classics < /strong > < /p >.

< p > compared with the 44000 stocks of Rigas and Byng when they first entered the company, Asprey inventory has now been halved.

When they ask themselves, "what is the core product of a brand?" they decide that they should be jewelry, porcelain, a target= "_blank" href=, "http://www.91se91.com/", leather, /a, silver and rare books, of which jewelry accounts for 50% of sales and at the same time stops the fashion business.

"Even if the fashion industry is one of the most prosperous industries in the world, no one will come to buy Asprey for fashion," Rigas said. "This is not our distinguishing feature. We are mainly handbags."

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When p launched the first handbag, Asprey was made of precious leather with jewellery on it.

They invited some customers to come and pick it up. Surprisingly, the 4 most expensive handbags were sold first.

Rigas said: "this means that our customers are looking at the connotation of the brand."

Once, Rigas's wife, Darcy, walked into the store and took her favorite creative Asprey travel bag.

So they began selling the same handbag made of rare leather, named Darcy, selling for 12000 pounds.

Soon, they found that many people came to buy this handbag, so their idea is correct. Customers are shopping to find something special for them.

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< p > other professional fields, such as rare out of print books, old books' re binding and jewelry customization service, will no longer be redundant. Asprey's craftsmen are definitely the best in the industry.

Hand painted porcelain and glass carving are all done manually by artists. Everything here is unique and not everywhere.

Byng said: "it's hard to define past luxuries."

But he reiterated: "we are not a member of the fashion industry. What we need to do is to pass on Jiabao."

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< p > interestingly, their views on the new system are totally different from those of Cao Qifeng and Lawrence Stroll.

Global expansion is not within their plans.

"We believe," Byng said, "moving forward step by step can also create a company of great significance."

Both Rigas and Byng believe that their target customers are people with sharp eyes and exquisite minds. They are tired of "luxury goods all over the streets and lanes". What they want is a less publicized brand.

Our ultimate goal is not to build 200 retail stores, and 20 are enough. Byng calls it an "intensive business network".

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< p > according to the valuation of world famous brand valuation and strategy consulting company Brand Finance, nowadays the brand value of Asprey is about 200 million to 250 million US dollars. From this point of view, the practice of Rigas is very effective.

Byng said: "the elasticity of brand value is a good thing.

Asprey has a history of 230 years. Although it has been a scandalous scandal, it is just a mistake in its growth. "

Rigas has made it clear that he will be stationed in Asprey, and in Byng's words, "Rigas and Asprey cherish each other".

At least on the surface, he is different from Cao Qifeng and Lawrence Stroll. He is serious.

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