Buffet Crampon: Мировой лидер в производстве духовых инструментов.

French wind musical instrument manufacturer

Buffet Crampon SAS is a French manufacturer of wind instruments based in Mantes la Ville, Yvelines department. The company is the world market leader in the production of clarinets of the Boehm system. Its subsidiary, Buffet Crampon Deutschland GmbH, founded in 2010 and based in Markneukirchen, Vogtland, Sachsen, is the world market leader in the manufacture of brass instruments. To manufacture and sell its products, the BC Group employed around 1000 people worldwide at the beginning of 2021, 470 of them as employees of BC Germany alone. The management of the group has been in the hands of Jérôme Perrod since 2014.

Until the 1980s, only professional level clarinets carried the BC name. Lower priced clarinets for the beginner and intermediate market were branded "Evette" and "Evette & Schaeffer", respectively. For a time, the Evette clarinets actually were built by other manufacturers under BC's sponsorship, and these instruments are marked "Evette sponsored by Buffet". By the early 1970s, Buffet was making the Evettes in their own factory in Paris, and around 1979, manufacture was moved to a Buffet owned factory in Germany. Evette & Schaeffer clarinets were made in Paris. Use of the Evette and Evette & Schaeffer brands ended around 1985, when the company began using the Buffet name on all its clarinets.

In 2010 the newly founded Buffet Crampon Deutschland GmbH, Markneukirchen, acquired the production facility in Markneukirchen and the brands W. Schreiber and Julius Keilwerth from the insolvency of Schreiber & Keilwerth GmbH, after the insolvency administrator had reduced the workforce in Markneukirchen from 252 in the previous months Employees had reduced to 134. The company manufactured clarinets of German systems and bassoons under the brand name W. Schreiber and saxophones under the brand name J. Keilwerth. In 2012, BC Germany also takes over B&S GmbH, which also produces in Markneukirchen, the leading European manufacturer of brass instruments with 250 employees and the brands B&S, Hans Hoyer, Melton, Meinl, Weston and J. Scherzer and integrates them into the company, whose workforce will grow to more than 400 employees (470 at the beginning of 2021). With these two most important acquisitions in the company's history, the Buffet Group can almost double its sales and has since taken a leading position not only in the field of woodwind instruments, but also brass instruments. In 2012, Capital France SAS becomes shareholder in Buffet Group SAS. Capital is a subsidiary of Trail, a European private equity company with registered office in Paris. In 2014, Jérôme Perrod was appointed as the new CEO of the Buffet Group. 2015 Buffet Group founds a subsidiary in China, the Buffet Crampon Manufacturing Musical Instruments Co. LTD, which is building a production facility for 160 employees in Beijing, where 4,000 brass instruments for students will be (are to be) manufactured annually from 2016 onwards. With the beginning of 2016 the Buffet Group Wind Instruments SAS was renamed Buffet Crampon SAS (BC). In January 2019, BC acquired the French oboe manufacturer Rigoutat, Paris. After the takeover of Powell Flutes in 2016, Parmenon was acquired in June 2019, whose know how and reputation strengthen the group's competence in the flute market. 2020 BC opens a showroom in Beijing and builds a new factory (BCMMI) for 130 employees near Shanghai, with an annual capacity of 50,000 instruments. BC is a partner of Woodstock's brass band.

Model Body Notes E12F ABS resin Succeeded by B12 model Prodige ABS resin Newest student model 1180 Grenadilla Student model bass cl.

Model Greenline option? Notes Conservatoire No Semi professional model, also known as the C12 model R13 Yes Most popular professional model, named after its designer, Robert Carrée RC Yes Evolved from the R13 model with distinctive barrel and bell shape; developed in 1974 with the assistance of the luthier Robert Carrée, for whom the model is named Vintage No Replaced the S1; closer to the original 1950's R13 bore design Festival Yes Has R13 bore with denser wood; register key is 1 mm higher than on a standard R13; has additional alternate left hand E/A lever R13 Prestige No Made from highest quality unstained grenadilla wood; has additional alternate left hand E/A lever RC Prestige Yes Smaller bore than R13 model; more popular in Europe; has additional alternate left hand E/A lever Tosca Yes Introduced in 2003; has unique bore design and reshaped keywork; has auxiliary E key and low F correction key Divine No Introduced in March 2012 as Buffet's top of the line model Legende No Introduced in July 2017 as Buffet's top of the line model Tradition No New cylindrical bore design, which goes back to the earlier BC20 model. New design and improved equipment from April 2019 Gala No Introduced 2020, cylindrical bore design as the Tradition BCXXI No Introduced in late 2021, cylindrical bore, range extended to low E♭