It’s been a little over a year since Pelikan International announced the sale of its stationery division to the French-based Hamelin stationery group. The transaction was completed on December 13th, marking the transition of Pelikan’s fine writing division to new management. Mergers and acquisitions often lead to personnel changes, with many positions becoming redundant. This can result in reassignments or layoffs for affected employees. While the past six months have appeared to be business as usual under the new ownership, we are starting to see the moves Hamelin plans to make in order to streamline its business model. Today, it was announced that Hamelin will take over the distribution of the Pelikan brand starting on January 1, 2025, and as a result, the sales and distribution locations in Hannover and Falkensee under Pelikan Vertriebsgesellschaft (PVG) will be closed.
While 1838 marks the traditional founding of Pelikan, Carl Hornemann began the business in Hannover circa 1832. The company has maintained a presence in Hannover for 192 years, even after production shifted to Peine-Vöhrum in 1973. However, it now appears that Hamelin plans to close the sales locations in Hannover and Falkensee, leading Pelikan Vertriebsgesellschaft (PVG) to cease operations by December 31st. The Works Council has suggested that this move could jeopardize the livelihoods of around 250 individuals, with 100 in Hannover and another 150 in Falkensee, effectively halving Pelikan’s German workforce. Furthermore, Hamelin intends to independently distribute all products from the Pelikan and Herlitz brands starting in January. It is important to note that, at present, this news does not impact manufacturing at the Peine-Vöhrum plant, which currently employs approximately 230 individuals.
As one might expect, the news has been poorly received. Works Council Chairman Manuela Meyer is quoted by the Hannoversche Allgemeine (HAZ) as stating, “This is a slap in the face for us. We have always held the flag up here and given everything for the brand.” It seems that, despite months of inquires, Hamelin did not communicate its intentions to the employees until just recently. Hamelin intends to collaborate with the employee representatives to move forward with the planned dismissals in a socially responsible way. PVG employees familiar with the proposal also were informed that Haemlin aims to create about 30 new jobs at their German Hamelin GmbH to handle the additional workload.
Hamelin CEO Eric Joan is on the record as saying; “The market for school and office supplies needs strong industrial players who are able to grow sustainably through innovation and long-term investments in marketing and production. It was this vision that convinced PICB shareholders to accept our offer to buy the Pelikan Group in 2023. The structure now intended for Germany will enable us to strengthen cooperation with our customers by offering them the widest range on the market in a single catalog and a one stop shop.” There is no word yet on how this may or may not affect distribution and sales beyond Germany.
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Very sad.
Sad for those who will lose their jobs, absolutely.
Personally I don’t care about sales. Beef up the design and production of their writing instruments and inks, and I will be satisfied
So far, I have not seen any negative impact related to design and production but we will have to see how further integration of the companies may impact that, for better or worse.
I’m not sure if this is double speak for an eventual movement of their operations and manufacturing to “lower cost” jurisdictions. M&As will always result in job loses and amalgamation of processes, and the reality is that the fine writing division will always be a niche division within their business. We’ve seen that with CONID during the height of the pandemic.
I for one do not want to see the loss of Pelikan’s fine writing division, but the reality is that- we’ve all seen it before with the many now defunct German fountain pen makers.
I honestly don’t think that would be the case. While it is true, Germany is not the cheapest place to do business, their German heritage is at the heart of the brand. I believe that Hamelin realizes this too. It would be brand suicide to move production outside of the country’s boarders in my opinion.
I think the Hamelin group sees the writing on the wall. People buy less pens. So, Hamelin will use all possibilities cutting costs.
Hamelin, being an established brand who has acquired a lot of companies in the last few years, is likely well practiced at these mergers. The last 6 months were likely used to review redundancies and to come up with a plan to improve efficiency and cut cost. The unfortunate byproduct is that there is too much overlap and that many of Pelikan’s legacy employees will be out of a job.
I think a lot of readers here have a view of Pelikan that only encompasses the fine writing division. But that’s not the case. Pelikan has an excellent fine writing division however a large part – the majority even – of Pelikan is in the office supply business. And that really is a cutthroat race-to-the-bottom market. Point in case? I have seen the quality of office supplies at a major bank in The Netherlands going from reasonable quality to dismal quality in a short period of time. Nobody in large corporations is interested in quality office supplies and the drive is cheap-cheaper-cheapest. Try to survive in that market. The fact that Pelikan has been sold to Hamelin already is an indication that Pelikan has a hard time surviving as a whole. Hamelin being in that business as well knows it only can absorb Pelikan by leveraging any economies of scale it can find. This means for example merging similar company functions. And probably cuts in product portfolio as well. So before we lament the demise of Pelikan lets see what happens.
You are spot on with that. With the fine writing division only encompassing about 7% of annual sales, it is just a small part of a much larger product catalog. Pelikan is first and foremost an office/school supply company that dabbles in fine writing on the side. Even from the outset, pens were never their core business. I fully agree though, it is far too soon to lament the demise of Pelikan. I think we are simply witnessing the consequence of an acquisition. Tough business decisions are to be expected.
This is so sad. They’ll let people go in a “socially responsible” way? Does that mean they won’t kick them in the head as they shove them out the door? There’s an old saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Why is this happening? That’s what I’d like to know. Is there a good reason, or is it just because there’s a new guy at the top who feels like he has to leave his mark? If it’s the latter, this could be the end for my favorite brand. My very first fountain pen is a Pelikan M250. Twenty plus years later it still writes like a dream and it’s still my favorite. I can only pray that this doesn’t destroy the company and the people who work there.
I included that statement intentionally, regarding social responsibility. Laying people off in Germany is very different than it is here in the United States. Layoffs and severance pay in Germany are subject to very specific legal regulations. Those regulations are in place to prioritize employee protection and ensure fair treatment. Labor laws in Germany ensure employers follow specific procedures, provide appropriate compensation, and consider alternatives to layoffs. The whole goal is to promote fairness and sustainability. They are much more invested in their society and the individual than we are here in the US. Hamelin will be bound by these same rules when laying people off. There is a good reason for this. Pelikan has sales people, Hamelin has sales people. Pelikan has book keepers, Hamelin has book keepers. You can see where this is going. Now that Pelikan has become a Hamelin brand, there is a lot of overlap which results in redundancy and inefficiency. If we have any hope of Pelikan surviving as we know it, I’m afraid moves like this are necessary.
Production staff at Pelikan will lose their jobs even after getting through the hard years of covid. Their special knowledge on producing fine writing instruments will be lost in the wind. Sad to close a location after a 192 year presence. Makes you wonder. Was at a pen show last week and the new LE Montblanc fountain pens have so much plastic. No one seems to use quality materials anymore besides Montegrappa.
So far, no announcements have related to production at all. This new simply relates to those based in Germany who work at selling Pelikan’s product catalog to businesses. No specialized knowledge is being touched at the moment and think that is deliberate. While the fine writing instruments are only a small part of the product portfolio, I do believe Hamelin understands their importance. Also, of the many brands under the Hamelin umbrella, none of them really encompass fine writing instruments like Pelikan does. Pelikan could be a prestigious jewel in their crown and I believe that they aren’t oblivious to that fact.
I’ll believe it only when I see it if Hamelin Pelikan continues with the Pelikan excellence. Of course, I don’t have one of the upper echelon Pelikan pens, only a 205 and the M120N, but I especially love how the latter writes. It had always been my dream to own a Souveran, but in this stage of my life, I don’t see that ever happening now. I won a Type I Pelikan 120 with a fine nib a couple of years ago for about $23, and I recently gave it to my older brother. He was very pleased, even if it was a school pen; it was his first Pelikan pen. I do hope that this buyout ends up being a good thing, although I hate to see anyone lose their jobs.
I would say that M120N is as good as any in the upper echelon. It’s one of my favorites and does its job exceedingly well. As you said, only time will tell if Hamelin will maintain standards.
Redundancies are always sad to read about with often years of deducated sevice given by employees who suddenly find themselves on the scrap heap. My instinct tells me this situation could well be caused by the Chinese now moving into office supplies in a big way. Hamelin are obvioulsy getting the house in order to compete with chinese products.
To further endorse my point, just look at the fountain pens on offer that are produced in China, I am guilty having purchased 5 in recent months and frankly the quality is beyond reproach, the Chinese manage to kill off the competition in order to try and gain a monoply. They have started selling E cars at riculous prices that European companies cannot match, this onslaught of of cheap Chinese products is not going to stop.
The Chinese are a force to be reckoned with. Tesla once mocked their E cars and now they are neck and neck. Suddenly they have a competitor that they once never took seriously and did so at their own peril. Hopefully the same will not be true for Hamelin and the office supplies/fine writing market.
The EU will introduce tariffs in Chinese E cars next week and will likely do so in several other sectors as well. I believe a backlash to Chinese business policies is long overdue and very likely to happen in the next couple of years, so it remains to be seen whether this is really going to be a major factor for Hamelin.
Hi Joshua, thanks for the post! Btw, is there any updates on the whole barrel material situation? Or has Pelikan (unfortunately) settled with the opaque barrel? Much appreciated.
The opaque barrel seems to be a settled issue for now. The only way I see that changing is if the current owners reverse course though I’ve heard of no plans too do so to date.
Just to let you know, and sorry, it has nothing to do with this article, really sorry.
The first photos of the golden lapis, pen, not ink, is available.
https://www.instagram.com/pelikan_passion/p/C-Z6ENlK2IX/?hl=en&img_index=1
It’s so pretty. A reddit User wrote a comment how it looks expensive.
Thank you for sharing. Hopefully you saw my post on the same topic which I published last evening.
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