Staedtler

Pelikan in the news

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In the past few days Pelikan has been in the (financial) news. Last year their turnover dropped by 13% and they lost more then ten million Swiss francs.

There have been quite a few changes for Pelikan in the past months: As mentioned previously they now manufacture the Porsche Design pens, but they stopped distributing certain Henkel products – Staedtler does that now  …no wonder Staedtler’s glue in the Pencilmaker Set is from Henkel.

I hope Pelikan’s financial situation will improve again. It certainly wasn’t my fault – I bought quite a few Pelikan products (mainly fountain pens).

Continuing the Pelikan theme: you might remember one of my previous blog posts that included a video of Japanese politicians using a Pelikan. Well,something similar might happen in New Zealand soon: politicians there use Pelikan fountain pens, too. Simon Parker, New Zealand’s Minister of Justice, Minister for State Owned Enterprises, Minister of Commerce, Minister Responsible for the Law Commission and Associate Minister of Finance received a Pelikan fountain pen as a gift from the German State Secretary.

What stationery taught me about Oceania:  Australian pencils are harder than British pencils and New Zealand’s politicians hold more ministerial posts than British politicians.

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Staedtler’s Pencilmaker Set

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Fantastic! This morning I received my historic pencilmaker set.  The tin is labelled in eight different languages, even though you can only order this set directly from Staedtler in Germany. Stocks are limited, Staedtler does ship overseas, so if you want you please hurry before they are gone. The price is € 5 per set, one set makes one pencil.

Staedtler Pencilmaker Set

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Quick on the Draw

13 Comments / Faber-Castell, Graf von Faber-Castell, Links, Staedtler / / , , , , , , , , ,

What a nice surprise. I was just just driving home from work when I turned the radio on and heard the end of “Quick on the Draw“, a programme from Radio 4’s In Business series of programmes. This programme picked up two topics that The Economist covered over the last few months: Staedtler vs. Faber-Castell and the Mittelstand. Today’s Radio 4 programme featured an interview with Axel Marx, Managing Director of Staedtler, and Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell. Axel Marx talked about the Wopex and Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell talked about the perfect pencil and the luxurious Graf von Faber-Castell collection. I only heard the second half, but hope to listen to the whole programme on the BBC iPlayer soon [1]According the the information currently displayed on the BBC iPlayer page the programme will be available online until 2099, if I access the programme with my phone the programme is said to be online … Continue reading. I am not sure whether the content can be accessed outside the UK, though. If not: the programme will be repeated on Sunday, 17th May 2011, at 21:30 on BBC Radio 4. Even if you are outside the UK you should be able to listen to Radio 4 live over the Internet.

You can also read comments about this programme from the presenter Peter Day on his In Business page.

Two more comments:

  • It was nice to hear people speaking with a Franconian accent on the radio, even though the accent was not very strong.
  • I was not surprised to hear Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell in this programme. He is the one who is often representing Faber-Castell in the media. Last month there was a rare chance to see his brother – in a children’s programme on the TV channel of the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat (Republic) of Bavaria. The programme (“Ralphi”) explained how pens and brushes are manufactured and Faber-Castell was represented by …not Count Anton, but Count Andreas von Faber-Castell, who settled in Australia in the 1970s.

References

References
↑1 According the the information currently displayed on the BBC iPlayer page the programme will be available online until 2099, if I access the programme with my phone the programme is said to be online for about 300 more days …but usually programmes are only available for a week, so I would not be surprised if this programme will disappear from the iPlayer

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Staedtler’s bling pencils

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New from Staedtler for 2011/12 and only available while stocks last: limited edition pencils in six colours. They are triangular shaped and their blingness comes from 3D silver stamps on the barrel that are said to look like crystals [1]I assume the silver stamps do not cause problems for the sharpener..

I assume there is some similarity between the “crystals” on this pencil and the raised dots on Faber-Castell’s Grip 2001 – even though the position of the crystals on the barrel of Staedtler’s pencil does not seem improve grip.

References

References
↑1 I assume the silver stamps do not cause problems for the sharpener.

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