Faber-Castell: How was Europe's pen empire formed?

Roland Graf von Faber-Castell, who took over the management of the family company Faber-Castell in 1928, made a great effort to maintain the market power of the company during the interwar period. Considering the changing market needs, he enabled the company to start the production of fountain pens and ballpoint pens in addition to pencils. During his tenure that lasted until 1978, Faber-Castell gained strength in the field of sales and marketing thanks to the commercial collaborations it established with different companies in Europe and America.

Roland Graf von Faber-Castell (1905-1978)

Roland Graf von Faber-Castell was born on April 21, 1905 in Schwarzenbruck, Bavaria, Germany. Ottilie Faber, a descendant of Kaspar Faber, who was a pencil manufacturer in Nuremberg in the 18th century, took the surname Faber-Castell by marrying Roland's father, Alexander Castell. In the will of his grandfather, Lothar Faber, the head of the company was required to keep the Faber surname. Ottilie Faber, who was born from the marriage of his son Wilhelm Faber, who took over the management of the company after Lothar Faber's death, to his cousin Bertha, merged his surname with his wife's surname after marrying Alexander Castell, thereby changing the name of the company to Faber-Castell.

The city of Nuremberg has been home to numerous pencil makers since the 18th century. As a matter of fact, this city was surrounded by the graphite and clay mines necessary for the production of pencils. Carpenter Kaspar Faber, one of the pencil manufacturers in Nuremberg, enlarged the Faber brand he created with his own surname. The growth of the company, managed by family members, continued uninterrupted until the 20th century. In 1903, Ottilie Faber-Castell and her husband Alexander Faber-Castell took over the management of the company. During this period, Alexander Faber-Castell built a large castle near the company's headquarters in Stein. He made warring knights, representing medieval values, the symbol of the company. He used this symbol to create a positive opinion on users regarding the quality of his products.

After Alexander Faber-Castell's death in 1928, Roland Graf von Faber-Castell took over the management of the company. Successfully managed by his mother and father for 25 years, the company had increased its market power with new products introduced to the market. So much so that in 1911 the number of workers working in Faber-Castell production facilities had reached 2,000. However, the company entered a very difficult process with the First World War, and the effects of the war continued to be felt during the period when Roland Graf von Faber-Castell assumed the management.

Roland Graf von Faber-Castell believed that during the interwar period, Faber-Castell needed to maintain market power rather than trying to grow through new investments. In the 1930s, when the 1929 Depression shook almost all the markets, he sought to cooperate with the workers in order to use the production facilities effectively and to reduce the costs. In 1932, he took over the pencil factory and its subsidiary in Brazil, which was founded in 1879 by Johann Faber, the brother of his great-grandfather Lothar Faber, and tried to increase efficiency in production.

During the Lothar Faber era, the company gained significant momentum in expanding outside of Germany, and the company's first foreign representative office was opened in New York in 1849. In addition to the European market, the growth in the American market also continued after Lothar Faber. Lothar Faber, who bought a mine producing high quality graphite in Siberia in 1856, completely solved the raw material problem of the company. This situation continued under Roland Graf von Faber-Castell. But in the interwar period, the demands and needs of the market had changed. Instead of pencils, fountain pens had become the main dynamic of the market. Roland Graf von Faber-Castell, who read this change correctly, entered the fountain pen market by purchasing the German brand Osmia, which was founded in 1919, in 1935.

In the 1930s, Osmia fountain pens had a significant power in the writing instruments and instruments market. Osmia, which entered the sector with the production of mechanical pencils, managed to make a difference thanks to the gold-tipped fountain pens it developed, and reached a significant strength against the famous fountain pen brands of the period, Kaweco, Montblanc and Parker. Even the diamond logo, which represents quality and durability, attracted the attention of users. The hard rubber materials used in Osmia pens extended the life of the pens. Roland Graf von Faber-Castell, who entered the fountain pen market with Osmia in 1935, reflected the technologies developed by Osmia for fountain pens to other product groups.

After World War II, Roland Graf von Faber-Castell accelerated investments in Europe and America. It enabled the establishment of new factories in many countries, especially in Ireland, France, Italy, Argentina and Peru. However, under the conditions of the Cold War, the productivity level of these factories could not reach the desired level. These factories could not meet the expectations due to the painful relations between the states under the conditions of the Cold War. But the commercial collaborations he established with different companies in Europe and America increased Faber-Castell's sales and marketing power.

Expanding its product range in the 1960s in line with the needs of the market, the company expanded its product range in crayons, mechanical pencils, technical drawing pens and ballpoint pens as well as wooden-bodied pencils and fountain pens. Since Faber-Castell's brand power has increased sufficiently, Osmia products have also met with consumers under the brand name Faber-Castell since 1952 and their production continued until 1975. Having gained a rapid development momentum since the 1960s, ballpoint pens played an active role in Faber-Castell's orientation to this product group. In this process, Roland Graf von Faber-Castell attached great importance to the development of new technologies that would reduce the production cost of ballpoint pens and give Faber-Castell an edge over its competitors.

After Roland Graf von Faber-Castell died in 1978, his son Anton-Wolfgang Graf von Faber-Castell took over the management of the company. Anton-Wolfgang Graf von Faber-Castell, who believes that the company's future vision goes through internationalization, worked to realize this vision until he passed away in 2016. During the Anton-Wolfgang era, Faber-Castell's production facilities expanded to 23 countries around the world, and its products were made available to almost every age and taste group around the world, with more than 120 distributors.

For detailed reading:

https://www.faber-castell.com/corporate/history/familiy

Why do some German companies use the abbreviation AG?

Aktiengesellschaft

German companies that are publicly traded are designated as such by the letters 'AG' after the company name. 'AG' is an abbreviation for the German word Aktiengesellschaft, which literally translates to 'stock corporation' or 'shares corporation' in English.

The story of Faber Castell

Faber-Castell was founded in 1761 at Stein near Nuremberg by cabinet maker Kaspar Faber (1730–84) as the A.W. Faber Company, and has remained in the Faber family for eight generations. It opened branches in New York (1849), London (1851), Paris (1855), and expanded to Vienna (1872) and St. Petersburg (1874).

Why is a pen called a pen?

"Pen," meaning a writing implement, comes from "penna," the Latin word for wing or feather, because some of the first writing pens were made of feathers.

Who came first pencil or pen?

The history of pens goes back, at least in the Western world, to ancient Egypt, to about 3000 BC. So pens predate the graphite pencil.

What was used before pens?

Before the steel pen points were invented, writers would use quills, reeds or still brushes as pens. The famous ballpoint pen was patented by John H. Loud, an American inventor, in 1888. The pen didn't see much use until World War II, but pilots started using ballpoint pens because they wouldn't leak at high altitudes.