HISTORY
Henry Buck's is one of the world's great menswear stores and perhaps one of the last of the great menswear retail specialists to remain in family hands in an age where globalisation, rationalisation and the expediency of mass marketing and poor levels of service are what we have become accustomed to expect.
Henry Buck's is also the Australian member of the International Menswear Group, a prestigious club of the world's very best menswear specialists, and on three occasions in the past 15 years have been elected president of this exclusive group who meet three times a year to share valuable information and ideas.
The world's finest and most wearable men's clothes are carefully and selectively bought for Henry Buck's customers. There is a sense of purpose and knowledge in our purchasing of men's clothing and a whimsical flamboyance and innate style in our collection of luxurious accessories.
Henry Buck was born in 1860 in Clerkenwell, London, the second child of Thomas,a master electro-plater and later a corn factor. He moved to Yorkshire and was brought up in Danby. He learnt the soft goods trade at the age of 13 and suffering from turboculosis migrated to New South Wales in 1887 and worked at Manfred a sheep raising property near Euston. His fiancée Laura Jane Rose joined him but was repelled by life on a sheep station, and being a strong Yorkshire personality, persuaded Henry to move to Melbourne. On June 25 1887 at Armadale the couple married with Presbyterian forms
Henry worked as a bookbinder assistant, losing his job in 1890 after having the temerity to ask for a rise in pay, probably a shilling a week. He went into a business with a friend and found to his dismay that he had been duped. Rather than take legal action against his friend, Henry took over the shop, fabrics and equipment and with Laura as bookkeeper, and 2 machinists, Henry learned the trade of shirt cutting and opened a shop on August 25th 1890 in the fashionable Queen’s Walk off Swanston Street
By the turn of the century Henry had built a big factory on the outskirts of Melbourne to manufacture shirts, pyjamas and ties, and had leased a warehouse in the city.
King George V appointed Henry Buck an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1920 for services to the community and business. As well as managing a business involved in retail, manufacturing and wholesaling, HB had become famous for administering to thousands of returned troops, ferrying them around and providing food and shelter throughout the 1914-1918 war.
In 1919, Fred Dennett, a dashing young touring concert pianist and the nearest thing to what we would call a "pop star", visited Melbourne during a tour of the Empire, met, wooed and married Henry’s only daughter Elsie, much to her parent's disapproval.
Fred eloped with his young bride to India and, soon after, Henry’s famous telegram "All is forgiven. Come Home. Love, Dad" changed the course of the firm’s future and ensured its succession. Fred joined Henry Buck’s, produced a daughter, Suzanne and a son, Peter who later at the age of 21 captained a Lancaster bomber that was shot down over France in 1944. When HB died on a visit to England in 1933, Fred became Governing Director.
Henry Buck’s granddaughter, Suzanne, married James Cecil from England. Their sons, Timothy and Jonathan, are now involved in the business. The 5th generation, Jonathan’s three children James, Timothy and Romy are of course heirs and successors to the business. James is an accomplished musician (following his great grandfather’s footsteps), Tim Jnr has joined the company and is a buyer working with his uncle Tim and Romy is still at school.
Tim Cecil manages the business, Jonathan sits on the board, designs the stores and catalogues and advises on corporate image. Their mother is also on the board and administers good motherly wisdom and advice. Between them they own 100% of the shares.
There are now 6 stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, a thriving catalogue business (via mail order and the Internet), occasional "trunk shows" that travel to most Australian cities presenting the seasonal collections to the country and interstate clientele, and HB’s are still making their own shirts. Australia is a big country and twice a year, Henry Buck’s mails its consistently award-winning catalogues to 70,000 clients whose names have all been provided during visits to the stores.
The most important labels in HB’s stores continue to be the Henry Buck’s and Buck’s Casuals brands made for them in Australia, New Zealand and Italy. In addition, HB’s buys Church’s, Hackett, Atkinson’s, Kent & Curwen, Turnbull & Asser and Derek Rose from Great Britain; Canali, Ermenegildo Zegna, Paul & Shark, Stefano Ricci, Etro, Cucinelli, Tino Cosma, Rossetti and Robert Friedman from Italy, and Ascot, Hugo Boss and Brax from Germany, Robert Talbott from USA., Lacoste and Breuer from France. The European Gant sportswear collection dominates HB’s rapid growth in casual sportswear.
Henry Buck’s has strengthened its position in the market place over the past 15 years through expansion and consolidation, entrepreneurial initiatives and focusing on its 35-65 age group of affluent, corporate or professional, smartly dressed clients.
And Henry Buck’s still proudly remains one of the last wholly owned and managed family companies left to fly the flag of private enterprise.
