Holm, Preben: Difference between revisions

Personally that was a great mistake. Before I realized what was happening I employed at the age of 22 forty five people, partly with the hand-carved pipes and now also with the series produced pipes. It soon dawned on me that neither the serial production nor the by far much widened administration interest me. It was simply impossible to maintain a quality which I could enjoy and be satisfied with. I have never been really content if I was not allowed to produce carefully, and I am fully convinced that in the long run one profits more by producing real quality even though, of course, one has to ask the price for it. Therefore I think after all that the following events suited me quite well.

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After a while, when delivering Snug Harbour both hand-carved and serial produced pipes problems occurred. The sale was a great success, but that, of course, caused a bigger need of capital which Snug Harbour could not supply. One day when three invoices that were fallen due were not paid we had another large shipment ready for the, and therefore I phoned the manager and was told that there was no more money on the account. I have had a presentiment that it was going this way, and fortunately we had such great success on the market that several of the most important firms in the U.S.A. had shown interest in cooperating with us. After many calls and discussions of the situation with some of the friends I gradually had got in America I deduced to pay messrs. Lane Limited a visit.  

Mr. Lane insisted that we should improve the quality considerably, and in return he would then be able to sell essentially larger quantities. The name Ben Wade belongs to Lane Ltd., and Mr. Lane was prepared to use considerable amounts of money for advertising in the big magazines. Among other things we used a picture of our very exclusive Seven Day's Set for these whole-page advertisements. We had certainly been taken in hand as the quality, and Mr. Lane himself took care that we did not get slack anywhere. But neither failed the result to appear. Within a very short time we sold Ben Wade pipes in by far much larger quantities that we had ever dreamed of. Snug Harbour sold their stock of Preben Holm pipes at very low prices, but fortunately what we had feared did not happen, that the retailers would sell the pipes cheap. Instead it occurred that when it was rumored that no more Preben Holm pipes would be sent to America the Preben Holm pipes in many places were sold as collectors; objects at high prices.  

The problem of the preben Holm name has now long ago been overcome, and Lane Ltd. are selling Preben Holm pipes as well as Ben Wade pipes. Our cooperation with Lane Ltd. has as well as Ben Wade pipes. Our cooperation with Lane Ltd. has lasted so far 12 - 13 years, and for me that has been a great experience. Commercially it has been a eminent success for both parts, and that exceedingly is due among other things to the very close and cordial cooperation between us. Often our negotiations are very severe, but no matter how it goes we are always friend afterwards. That means immensely much to me, and makes me really take a pleasure in living up to their expectations though it often can be something of a person problem. We are on the top, and we should like to stay there, and for that reason the demands are very high.