Business | Retail
Montegrappa launches limited edition pens for National Day
Special rippling effect on instrument highlights UAE flag colours
- By Francis Matthew, Editor at Large
- Published: 00:00 November 15, 2011
- Image Credit: Oliver Clarke/Gulf News
- Montegrappa will be selling 1,971 fountain pens, 1,971 roller ball pens as well as 40 special sets of pens with cufflinks which were specially crafted to celebrate the UAE’s 40th National Day.
Dubai: "We have dedicated our new pen to the 40th anniversary of the UAE," said Giuseppe Aquila, CEO at the premium pen-maker, Montegrappa.
"We have a strong presence in the UAE and the Middle East and growing in India through the Montegrappa Middle East office in Dubai.
"And we wanted to show our appreciation of what is happening in the UAE."
Montegrappa, which specialises in making limited edition pens, this week launched the UAE National Day pen, which includes 1,971 fountain pens, 1,971 roller ball pens as well as 40 special sets of pens with cufflinks.
There is also a very limited edition of seven fountain pens, with each bearing the engraving of one of the seven emirates.
The prices start at Dh5,950 for the roller ball version.
The pens are made with a unique process of diffusion bonding of resins, which creates a special rippling effect to the four national colours of the UAE on the pen, similar to a flag waving in the wind. In addition, the UAE's falcon is engraved on the nib of the pen, and in an elegant compliment to the UAE, Montegrappa has changed its own trademark 1912 symbol (to celebrate the company's founding 99 years ago) to 1971, used on the tip of the pen.
There is more to making a new pen than meets the eye of the outsider. Aquila explained that the new pen went through a concept process, and then 3D engineering, before a handmade prototype was produced, which was then tested rigorously. It was dropped repeatedly from a specific height, and was also tested for torque, hardness and resistance to ultra-violet light. "Maybe the most important was to be sure that the pen functioned well in varying grades of humidity," said Aquila.
The pens will be available from tomorrow through Rivoli in Dubai and the northern emirates and Al Sayegh in Abu Dhabi. "We expect the UAE pen to be popular in the country, obviously, but also with international collectors," said Aquila.
Montegrappa is the oldest luxury pen company in Italy and has been operating out of the same base in Bassano del Grappa in northeast Italy since it was founded 99 years ago. In the 1980s it started to build a variety of different speciality limited edition pens which appealed to collectors.
Earlier specimens
Some of these editions include such varied subjects as opera, Formula One legend Ayrton Senna, the America's Cup, and icons like Bruce Lee and Muhammad Ali.
As part of the run-up to Montegrappa's 100 years in 2012, it is launching several series including collections around literature, science and art. For example, author Paolo Coelho uses a Montegrappa pen and will support the launch of an Alchemist pen, designed after his famous book.
In Russia, Montegrappa pens are seen as the symbol of power after President Boris Yeltsin handed over to incoming President Vladimir Putin by formally giving him the Montegrappa Dragon pen at the handover ceremony, said Aquila.
"When he left office Putin apparently did not give the pen to Dimitri Medvedev," he added. So events next year in Russia are not unexpected as Putin seeks a return to the presidency.
The huge list of celebrities associated with Montegrappa goes back a long way. The company is based on the mountain, Monte Grappa, which was a bastion of Italian resistance to Austrian invaders in the First World War. In a neighbouring hospital, pacifist American author Ernest Hemmingway was an ambulance driver for the Allied forces along with another celebrated writer, John Do Passos, both of whom wrote letters and reports for newspapers with Montegrappa pens.
Expansion: Eye on luxury lifestyle
Montegrappa is expanding its business from its traditional speciality pens and building a global luxury lifestyle brand. It moved out of its traditional Italian domestic market in the 1980s with ranges of speciality pens, and now has joined its pens with cufflinks, watches and other lines.
The latest line being launched this season is a men's fragrance "based on the herbs and scents of the Monte Grappa region: including Italian lemon, bergamot and Monte Grappa gentian, as well as sage, basil and lavender," said Giuseppe Aquila.
In 2011, Montegrappa is again owned by the Aquila family, which had owned the business since the 1930s, but sold out in 2000 to the Swiss luxury goods group Richemont. But the multinational group reviewed its ownership of its smaller units after a few years and offered it back to the family in 2008, which was happy to buy it back.
"We are a $15 million (Dh55 million) turnover business, but plan to be $50 million by 2014," Aquila said. "We still have the Richemont Group as a shareholder, as well as two celebrity investors who bring a lot to the business: movie superstar Sylvester Stallone and Formula One star Jean Alesi.
"We are looking at 45 per cent growth this year and the Middle East is an active market for us. We are using it as a base from which to enter the important Indian market. Russia remains our biggest market, but we are also looking at expanding into Brazil and the Far East."
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