Paddy Byng is the managing director of Asprey, one of Britain’s oldest luxury brands. He joined the firm in 2011, having previously worked for Smythson, Dunhill and Polo Ralph Lauren. Here, he talks about the brand’s popularity in the Middle East and luxury trends.
Asprey has traditionally been popular among Middle Eastern customers. Is that popularity enduring?
Asprey has had quite a long history of relationships with Middle Eastern customers. That was really because its positioning has always been at the apex of the luxury market and historically, as well as today, certain Middle Eastern customers have always wanted what they perceived to be the best of the best. That has always been Asprey's reputation: providing products of the very, very highest quality. A lot of that has passed down through the generations so some of our newer, younger customers have known us maybe through their parents.
You don’t have any outlets in the Middle East. Are you thinking about opening stores here?
I actually think that part of the reason we do so well with Middle Eastern customers is potentially because we don't have a store in the Middle East. Luxury has become so ubiquitous and, in many ways, is rather less special than it used to be. Wonderful luxury brands out there have hundreds of stores now, whereas in the old days they really didn't and luxury was very much about uniqueness, exclusivity. Very often it was about bespoke. Many brands aren't able to deliver that any more because they have 200 stores. What we very much represent is the ultimate in luxury and there is the risk of diluting that if we had stores populated around the Middle East. The kind of customers we appeal to are very sophisticated, very discerning [and] obviously extremely wealthy. But they also come to London frequently and part of their whole experience of London is coming to see us. They see the same salesperson they've dealt with for many years and it's part of the whole experience. Because they are here frequently we have a very nice business and in some ways I think: "Do I need to be in the Middle East?"
Dilution of luxury brands is one trend. What else are you noticing?
The bigger luxury brands, the way they are trying to address their broad exposure in the market is to make more and more special, bespoke products. It’s a marketing strategy they are adopting because they want to make sure they remain desirable and aspirational and that’s becoming increasingly complicated for them to do because they are so widely distributed. Bespoke is a pretty important piece of our overall business. The really sophisticated, discerning luxury customers are beginning to turn away from these big brands because they want an experience as well as a product that’s unique. That is something we’ve always done and we are really benefiting from that. Customers will come in and they will love a lot of what’s on offer but they’ll say: “I really like that line but can I have it in this colour?” That’s in leather goods but it’s also in jewellery. We [also] do a private collation of handbags which last year consisted of 40 one-off bags. Each bag is completely unique — people will buy a bag and they will never see anyone else with this particular bag ever. That’s a very compelling proposition for a lot of our customers. We’ve done that two years in a row in a private exhibit room; we’ve made it by appointment only so people off the street can’t go in. That all creates what we think is true luxury. It’s a very exclusive atmosphere.
Your spring/summer handbag collection has an Arabian theme. How did that come about?
That’s been designed by Katie Hillier, we’ve been working with her for a couple of years. That was her inspiration for the spring/summer 2014 colour palette and some of the finishes, skins used on the bags; some very vibrant shades of tanzanite and tangerine alongside more sunbleached shades of powder blue, pearl and sepia.
You came on board as Asprey’s managing director in 2011. What are the main changes you’ve made since taking over?
One of the things I’ve done is strengthen the organisation some more, brought in some good people to fill positions within the company. I’ve supported the product teams [by] making sure we work with the very best design talent. We work with two fantastic designers in leather goods and jewellery, both who happen to be British. The British thing is very important. We are probably the oldest British luxury brand and it’s very important that we retain our British identity through working with and bringing in these specialist designers. We’ve renovated our most important flagships — the one here [in London] and the one in New York and we’ve launched a website.
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