Stradivarius strategies
Dallas Business Journal - November 24-30, 2000
TURTLE CREEK – In music circles around the world, the name John & Arthur Beare, Ltd. is widely known and held in the highest esteem.
But some still don’t know that the London-based company, which sells rare and antique stringed instruments, operates a Dallas showroom.
That has been the biggest challenge partner Michael Selman has faced as manager of the 4-year-old Dallas operation, the company’s first in the United States.
“As well-known as we are, if a person doesn’t hear about us on a regular basis, they may not call us first,” Selman said. “So we want to supply information to people on a regular basis and offer our services to remind them that we are here and available.
Selman opened the light-filled showroom with a restful view of Lee Park four years ago under the name Morris & Smith. That company later merged with John & Arthur Beare. The Dallas office was set up to service a growing U.S. market, as well as the Western Hemisphere and Asia.
“The business has changed so dramatically,” Selman says. “Now people want us to fly (the instrument) to them.” Dallas’ central location helps in that effort.
His mission is finding ways to make the Dallas office top-of-mind to professional musicians interested in purchasing a fine stringed instrument – and wealthy sponsors who purchase an instrument and allow a particularly talent musician to play it. Complicating matters is the escalating value and price of stringed instruments, which make them unaffordable to many musicians, and the fact that some people buy only one or two instruments in a lifetime. So a lost sale isn’t easily recouped. The instruments generally start in the $10,000 range and may top several million.
Because the company and its chairman, Charles Beare, are known for their instrument appraisals, Selman also works to remind would-be-buyers that the company sells instruments. The company also runs a restoration department, headed by master luthier Georg Eittinger.
The company’s executives are formal professional musicians.
“It’s enjoyable for us,” said partner Simon Morris, who regularly visits from the London office. “These are the tools of our trade, as well as wonderful antiques. It’s important to appreciate both sides.”
The company makes its presence known with classy ads on the back cover of trade magazine Strings. It’s also here to support and become a part of Dallas’ growing cultural community, Selman said.
“It’s not every day at SMU that you hear such as instrument,” says violinist and instructor Vesselin Demirev, who dropped everything one recent afternoon for a chance to play a 1716 Stradivarius violin at the local Beare showroom.
Finding the best spot for the showroom, which also houses a repair department, was a challenge in itself. It had to be convenient for professional musicians, close to the airports and in a space where other tenants didn’t mind the sound of music wafting through the building from two small performing areas. With fellow-first-floor tenants including and art gallery and photography studio, the company found its Dallas home. The local office has grown, adding staff and hours of operation, Selman said. Although the Dallas office is new, the company traces its roots to 1865 and has specialized in fine instruments and bows since 1892.
By Lisa Tanner, Staff Writer
