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Dunhill: Difference between revisions
→New Phase - Duke Street Era
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What Father didn’t reckon with was the long-term credit most of his well-to-do customers took for granted. For if, as Bill Carter explained, every item of merchandise in the shop had to carry a tag to save customers the embarrassment of having to ask the price, what would have been their reaction if confronted with an account simply because it had been unpaid for several months? Father knew only too well. If tailors and other West End merchants could somehow arrange their business so that impertinent requests of this sort didn’t have to be made, why not a struggling tobacconist? Of this situation, all too many customers took advantage with the result that Father extended their credit far beyond the limits of his own. | What Father didn’t reckon with was the long-term credit most of his well-to-do customers took for granted. For if, as Bill Carter explained, every item of merchandise in the shop had to carry a tag to save customers the embarrassment of having to ask the price, what would have been their reaction if confronted with an account simply because it had been unpaid for several months? Father knew only too well. If tailors and other West End merchants could somehow arrange their business so that impertinent requests of this sort didn’t have to be made, why not a struggling tobacconist? Of this situation, all too many customers took advantage with the result that Father extended their credit far beyond the limits of his own. | ||
His creditors quickly | His creditors quickly realized what was happening. It was not a situation they were likely to tolerate for long. Within the first two years of trading, they called a meeting after meeting until Bill Carter was the only assistant Father could afford to keep on. On one occasion, when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, one friendly cigar importer saved the day for him by praising Father’s enterprise and originality, urging his fellow creditors to give the business the benefit of a few more weeks." Mary Dunhill.<ref name=mary11>Dunhill, Mary (1979). Our Family Business (pp. 24-25). Great Britain, The Bodley Head.</ref></blockquote> | ||
With the advent of the First Great War in July 1914, many of its customers ended up in the trenches of northern France, where Dunhill sent boxes of tobacco<ref name=jcl1>Loring, J. C. (1998) The Dunhill Briar Pipe - The Patent Years and After, The Beginnings (pp. 5-6). Chicago: self-published.</ref>, pipes and hygiene items<ref name=balfour13>Balfour, Michael. (1992). Alfred Dunhill, One Hundred Years and More (p.66). London, Weidenfield and Nicolson.</ref>. Alfred sent the sealed boxes, declared and labelled "castor oil", which smelled strong and penetrating, to avoid miscarriage and ensure that it reached the front<ref name=balfour13>Balfour, Michael. (1992). Alfred Dunhill, One Hundred Years and More (p.66). London, Weidenfield and Nicolson.</ref>. Inside the box, in addition to the courtesies, Alfred suggested in a letter that some items would be shared with other officers. Invariably, these items were part of the parallel trade that existed in the theatre of war. In addition to French – obviously, there were Americans, Canadians, and Belgians (among others) in the region. The confluence of these factors favoured the diffusion of the brand around the globe. | With the advent of the First Great War in July 1914, many of its customers ended up in the trenches of northern France, where Dunhill sent boxes of tobacco<ref name=jcl1>Loring, J. C. (1998) The Dunhill Briar Pipe - The Patent Years and After, The Beginnings (pp. 5-6). Chicago: self-published.</ref>, pipes and hygiene items<ref name=balfour13>Balfour, Michael. (1992). Alfred Dunhill, One Hundred Years and More (p.66). London, Weidenfield and Nicolson.</ref>. Alfred sent the sealed boxes, declared and labelled "castor oil", which smelled strong and penetrating, to avoid miscarriage and ensure that it reached the front<ref name=balfour13>Balfour, Michael. (1992). Alfred Dunhill, One Hundred Years and More (p.66). London, Weidenfield and Nicolson.</ref>. Inside the box, in addition to the courtesies, Alfred suggested in a letter that some items would be shared with other officers. Invariably, these items were part of the parallel trade that existed in the theatre of war. In addition to French – obviously, there were Americans, Canadians, and Belgians (among others) in the region. The confluence of these factors favoured the diffusion of the brand around the globe. | ||
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<blockquote><q>It is intriguing to me how very late Dunhill came to the pricing strategies we now take for granted with luxury products—with steeply ascending price for reasonably minor incremental differences in quality. I mean imagine going to Duke Street in the 1920s and ‘30s and having your choice of a shape 53, a 56, or an LLC at exactly the same price.</q> Guy Lesser. </blockquote> | <blockquote><q>It is intriguing to me how very late Dunhill came to the pricing strategies we now take for granted with luxury products—with steeply ascending price for reasonably minor incremental differences in quality. I mean imagine going to Duke Street in the 1920s and ‘30s and having your choice of a shape 53, a 56, or an LLC at exactly the same price.</q> Guy Lesser. </blockquote> | ||
In 1923, a remarkable year, the company opened its capital in the stock exchange authorizing an initial capital injection of 300,000 pounds sterling (Alfred Dunhill Limited formed, with an initial authorized share capital. Alfred and his brother Herbert served as directors). Dunhill has done its first registration of "Alfred Dunhill" signature as a trademark. Later during WWII, the company kept Winston Churchill constantly supplied with the cigars ([[Dunhill Cigars]]) that would become such an essential part of the famous British icon. The '20s and '40s were successful years. | In 1923, a remarkable year, the company opened its capital in the stock exchange authorizing an initial capital injection of 300,000 pounds sterling (Alfred Dunhill Limited formed, with an initial authorized share capital. Alfred and his brother Herbert served as directors). Dunhill has done its first registration of "Alfred Dunhill" signature as a trademark. Later during WWII, the company kept Winston Churchill constantly supplied with the cigars ([[Dunhill Cigars]]) that would become such an essential part of the famous British icon. The '20s and '40s were successful years. | ||
<q>Dunhill had a doorman, a former Royal Horse Guards officer, and also gratified taxi drivers who got customers with ten cigarettes from a discontinuous line produced for soldiers during the Great War. The underground cigar room was richly furnished in mahogany with a thick green carpet and Venetian lamps. It was guarded by the watchful eyes of Major Malcolm Somerset-Johnstone, a former cavalry officer who wore a furry hat and a monocle and offered the exquisite cigars of a large mahogany cabinet that, rumored, came out of the Duke of Devonshire's mansion in Picadilly.</q><ref name=dcigars>McGinty, Stephen. (2007). Churchill's Cigars, (pp.66-67). London, Pan Books.</ref> | |||
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