The Story of my Firm
by Preben Holm



This story was written by one of the great Danish Pipemakers in
1983-84. Preben Holm passed away a few years ago, he was in his late
40's. With the death of Preben, production of his pipes, and those
under the Ben Wade Danish label also concluded. This story was
written in English by Preben - no attempt has been made to rewrite
the text. I hope that you enjoy this story of Preben Holm's pipe
company.

                 *************************

Already at an early age I became interested in pipes and in pipe-
smoking.  After school I worked as an errand-boy in my father's shop
which was a provision shop with 3 departments, one dealing with
pipes and tobacco, one dealing with wine, and another one selling
magazines and cigarettes etc.  When starting as an errand-boy I was
12-13 years old, and it did not last any length of time before the
pipe department roused my curiosity, and it was there I spent my
time when there were no goods to be delivered.  My father was
somewhat mean, and he only paid me a sixth of what I could earn
somewhere else, but this, I think, was very sound.  On the other
hand I earned a lot of good tips, and this money I saved carefully
and deposited it in the bank.  Though at that time I did not know
what I should save the money for it proved to be very important
later on, because this became my "initial capital" in the pipe
trade.

My father was altogether a very wise man, and one of the things he
did,  and which I appreciate to-day, was to prohibit the smoking of
cigarettes, but on the other hand he did not mind my smoking the
pipe already at the age of 13-14.  When I was 14 years old I got
tired of going to school, very much to everybody's amazement, as it
was considered a matter of course that I should study in order to
acquire a superior education.  However, I was very tired of school,
and therefore I asked my father to be allowed to leave the school.
No doubt he was rather disappointed, but he did not want to force me
into anything, and we agreed that I should begin a commercial
training in his business.  It was, especially to begin with, a mixed
job as some hours each day I still worked as an errand-boy at the
same time receiving a good training within the retail trade.  Part
of that education was that I had to go to a commercial school where
I, no doubt, learned things by which I benefited later on. 

The wine department I found very exciting, and I began to read thick
books about wine, especially red wine, however, it was still the
pipe department in which I was most interested.  I was myself a very
active pipesmoker, and both the pipes and the tobacco interested me
very much, and it was not long before I practically was in charge of
the pipe-department.  I found that very exciting, and already at the
age of 14 I managed the purchase of pipes and tobacco.  Most likely
I was not always popular with the sellers of pipes who considered me
too critical, but I thought that necessary in order to live up to
the confidence our customers of pipes gradually placed in me. 

I remember that my father considered me to be a bit crazy when I
began to buy tobacco for myself that was three times the price of
the common Danish made quality, but I really thought that it was
worth the money.  Before long I also made my father accept the idea
to include a very large selection of the better tobaccos, most of
them made in England, into our assortment, and it did not take a
long time before we had one of the largest selections in Copenhagen.

It is not allowed in Denmark to sell tobacco by weight, but I had
the idea that the customers should have a chance to see what they
were buying.  Therefore I wrote a big book describing in it each
single brand, attaching a small plastic bag of the tobacco.  It was
a great success.  There also belonged a small repair shop to the
pipe department, and very soon I took over the repairs.

In the meantime I had grown 15 years old, and my interest in pipes
increases more and more.  During some time an elderly gentleman, who
himself made hand-carved pipes, had visited the shop and wanted to
sell the pipes.  Of course I was very fascinated by him.  After I
had talked with him a few times he asked me whether I had any money.
I had after all my saved tips-money in total 1.400,00kr., and he
said that this would be sufficient to buy the necessary machinery so
that I could start making my own pipes.  He was very helpful with
the purchase of machines, and he made also the special tools that
were required.  I was allowed to mount the machines in a small room
in my father's cellar. 

The room was only 1/2 m2 (13 1/2 square feet), and conditions were
thus rather limited.  The first Bruyere-blocks I bought from that
nice gentleman, and I was now ready to start my own experiments.
That was done after working-hours in my father's shop, and I
experimented in my small work-shop until 11:30 p.m.  Then I had to
finish, because I had to get up and open my father's shop the next
morning.  On June 5th, 1963 11 days before my 16th birthday, the
moment had come when I sold the first pipes to my father for sale in
his shop.  I then approached the big pipe shop Pipe-Dan that is
situated in the city of Copenhagen, and that sells a lot to the
tourists. 

Pipe-Dan believed in a chance for the pipes I made, and he was
prepared to buy 20-30 pipes each week.  He was to judge the pipes
and fix the prices.  Now I became very busy and got some friends to
come and help me in the evenings for a reasonable payment.  I then
taught them the more rough work so I myself got more time to occupy
myself with the molding and finishing.  In that way a couple of
years went by, and one fine day I had finished my commercial
education.  I was now able to devote myself to the manufacture of
pipes all day long as well as during the evenings and weekends.  18
years old I employed my first journeyman, and we made gradually 50-
60 pipes a week which I continued mainly to sell to Pipe-Dan.

Then came the time when I had to serve my time as a soldier.  I kept
my journeyman who in the meantime had become quite skilful, and for
the rest I went the long way home from the barracks every time there
was an opportunity.  I had now got a larger and better work-shop,
but that did cost money and, as already mentioned, Pipe-Dan fixed
the prices of the pipes, and the tendency was, I suppose, the more
pipes we made the lower the prices.  One day during my military
service I realized that I was unable to keep my journeyman, and
therefore had to sack him.  That was not very pleasant.

One day while making the rather traditional hand-carved pipes as we
had to in order to come by some money, I took a fancy to make
something completely untraditional at that time.  From the very
beginning I had only worked with the finest Bruyere that could be
provided, and on the whole it all had very pretty grain patterns,
and that gave me the idea to try something novel.  Contrary to what
was done so far I started to form some of the pipes according to the
grain pattern, and out of this I got some quite particular models.
Thus having experimented a little while I had a very smart specimen,
at least I thought so.  At that time I received about 30,00kr. for a
pipe from Pipe-Dan, and I remember that I first went and showed my
father this special pipe.  He was very impressed, but when I told
him that I wanted to go to Pipe-Dan and ask 500,00 kr.  for it he
seemed not really to believe me.  Anyway, I did it. 

Pipe-Dan studied the pipe and said.  "By Jove, it is nice to see
something novel".  He paid the 500,00 kr. and told me that I was
welcome to make some more of them.  However, there was naturally a
limited market for pipes at such a price, and it was not long before
he could not buy any more of them.  Anyway, I continued to make them
in addition to the ordinary hand-carved ones.  I began also to let
the raw bark-top be part of the design.

When I was called up for military service I had 18 pieces of these
pipes which I was unable to sell.  Therefore I left them in my
father's shop.  One day when I returned home there was big news.  An
American, called Lon Schwartz had been calling.  Lon Schwartz was
making a purchase trip for his retail shop in St. Thomas, the Virgin
Islands, USA.  When he saw the 18 pipes he was very enthusiastic
about them and bought them on the spot, placing at the same time
orders for everything I could make against being entrusted with the
monopoly in the entire U.S.A.  When my military service came to an
end there was a lot to do.  I could now afford to engage a
journeyman, and very soon another one, and gradually we established
quite a nice production. 

I then got the idea that it would be fun to see where all the pipes
were sold, and therefore I decided to travel to St. Thomas.  St.
Thomas is indeed a tourist island, visited by tourists from all over
America, and it was these tourists who bought my pipes in Lon
Schwartz' shop.  During my first visit I stayed in the shop for 2-3
weeks and had ample opportunities of talking with pipe-smokers from
everywhere in America.  That really gave me a lot of impulse.  Then
I returned home and continued working with the new inspiration.
That was repeated 3 times within the first year's cooperation with
Lon.  I could simply not have had any better starting point, because
the taste changes quite a lot from one place in the U.S.A. to
another, but here came, as mentioned, pipe-smokers from all the
States.  It was wonderful to feel how something one oneself enjoyed
making really was accepted.

Lon Schwartz still wanted to buy all the pipes I could make,  and
new markets began to be added.  Japan was the next one.  People
there seemed to be more interested in the design and the quality of
the Bruyere than in the price.  Due to my always being very careful
with the purchase of raw material and only accepting the very best,
no matter what is the price, we very quickly acquired a very good
market in Japan.  Very soon new markets turned up, among others most
countries in Europe showed great interest, and we once more
increased the production.

In earnest it now began to demand much time of me, because I soon
learned that it was not easy just to increase the production as by
no means I wanted to compromise regarding the quality, but little by
little I managed.  My small workshop on the 4th floor in the city of
Copenhagen wa snow too small.  I was by now 21 years old and had six
journeyman.  Therefore I decided to move to a much bigger place in
the outskirts of Copenhagen.  However there now arose problems with
the U.S.A. Lon Schwartz still bought as much as we could spare him,
but it had slowly become too much for his shop in St.Thomas, and he
could not really make up his mind whether he should renounce with
the monopoly in the U.S.A. or whether he should establish a
wholesale business that covered the American market.  Finally he
decided to stay in St. Thomas, and to renounce with the monopoly the
rest of the rest of the U.S.A. 

Gradually the American wholesalers had commenced to talk about us,
and we received a number of applications, among others from messrs.
Snug Harbour in New York. They wanted to sell our pipes all over
America, and in March, 1969, we determined to enter into cooperation
with that firm. In the meantime we had made an effort to rationalize
the production in order to be able to offer the market some more
"consumer friendly" prices, and the success on the American market
achieved.  Snug Harbour now began to press me in order to make me
manufacture series produces pipes.  After some time I considered
this to be a new challenge and invested quite a lot of money in this
new project.  Among other things I bought a decided pipe factory. I
did not, however, take possession of the building, but moved all
machinery and most of the people to my factory at that time.

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.

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. 

Lane Ltd. were known to be by far the best firm to represent a pipe
factory.   They were especially known for three reasons which
appealed very much to me:  Their sense of quality, honesty and
efficiency. Of course, it was very nerve-wrecking, because I still
had my 45 employees and something that looked like a very
considerable loss, which also appeared to be the result, because
Snug Harbour never paid.  However, I went to New York and met Mr.
Herman G. Lane, president of Lane Ltd., for the first time.  It was
in February, 1971. 

Lane Ltd. owned themselves several pipe factories in Europe, and
thus they were not interested in my series produced pipes but in the
hand-carved ones.  My meeting with Mr. Lane resulted in an agreement
to start a cooperation.  I then went back home, partly in order to
make new samples for that cooperation, partly in order to sack half
of my staff where upon we closed down the production of the serial
produced pipes.  In the middle of all this hectic activity that
certainly was a great relief for me.  The export to other countries
was still good, and with that new cooperation with the U.S.A. thing
began again to improve.

The cooperation with Lane Ltd. proved later to be one of the most
important incidents that have happened to me.  Not only as regards
business but certainly also the personal friendship. One of the
great problems that first had to be solved was the question  whether
Lane Ltd. could offer our pipes for sale under the name of Preben
Holm, because what would happen to the stock of Preben Holm pipes in
the possession of Snug harbour.  Most likely they might sell the
pipes at very low prices so that they would bring in money, and how
should Lane Ltd.  then be able to sell the pipes at a very much
higher price under the same name.  We therefore determined to call
the pipes Ben Wade and to alter the finish, and I also discussed the
qualities within each price-group very carefully with Mr. Lane. 

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. 

It can be difficult year after year to fulfil the expectations with
regard to offer nearly constantly novelties, but so far we have
succeeded.  At least once a year I visit one of the big fairs in
America, and there I have ample opportunities to talk with the
retailers from all over the U.S.A., and I return home with a lot of
new ideas.

This is our twentieth anniversary, and looking back there is not
much I would have like to be without.  It has not always been
equally easy, but in spite of that one has learned an incredible
lot, and it is nice today to confirm that the philosophy I followed
from the very beginning-was, quality above quantity was right.  Of
course, I would not have succeeded if I had not employed some good
assistants, especially my head assistant whom I engaged 16 years ago
when he was 16 years old.  I trained him from when he was a big boy,
and from experience I certainly find that in this way you get the
best assistants.  Today we are a well established factory, and I
think we have found the right form with a staff of 20, and even
though we easily could sell more pipes I do not feel like extend the
production but I prefer constantly to improve the quality.  This
year we have made a small series of pipes which we call Diamond
Collection, but it is not due to the golden ring and the diamond
that they are sold at 50.000,00 kr. the piece.

Last year I engaged an export seller so that I do not need
travelling so much but can devote myself to the production, which
really needs much time, and in which by the way I also take the
greatest interest.  The quality of Bruyere which we use is very
expensive, and I examine myself each block.  From these I pick the
very best ones which are about 5 percent.  These 5 p.c. I work up
myself like 20 years ago, using some of my best people to do the
rougher work while I myself do the molding and the finish.  During
the work at least half of the lot is taken away because of various
faults in the wood while the rest ends as Preben Holm private
collection.  Those approximately 2 p.c. of our total production I
put my signature on with a good conscience.

-Preben Holm