American Executive magazine has a wide ranging interview with a Fila VP, touching on many aspects of the future of Dixon and Lyra. An upcoming IPO is probably a surprise to most of us. Moving even more manufacturing to Mexico and China probably isn’t.
Congratulations to Caran d’Ache, whose Prismalo watercolour pencils were pronounced a classic of everyday design by the Guardian.
Staedtler is closing their Malaysian factory, laying off 200. The story is unfortunately very brief. Staedtler has made huge investments in Mayalsia, and do quite a bit to talk up their forest practices. I’m not sure how their forest assets are affected.
Is the Eberhard Faber label ending? Staedtler is apparently taking over products in the Eberhard Faber line. I’m not quite sure how Staedtler has come to control this name. The former US Eberhard Faber is now part of Sanford. Eberhard Faber has released new (and well received) pencils quite recently, so this move is a surprise.
And – I’ve previously mentioned curiosities such as Pelikan and Rotring woodcase pencils. Here are two more: From Sailor and Ohto. There must be other writing equipment manufacturers out there who’ve tried making pencils, even if pencils are no longer among their current offerings. Do you know of any?
Interesting stuff, thanks.