Owners to close Sheaffer pen plant

The Des Moines Register ^ | 03/30/2004 | S.P. DINNEN

[Willie Green]

The historic Sheaffer pen factory in Fort Madison will close in 2006, the plant's owners announced Monday.

Bic USA Inc. had warned March 10 that it was seriously considering closing the plant. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and other officials tried to persuade the French-owned company to keep the plant open and save 115 jobs.

[billorites]

Buggy whip alert.

[billorites]

"one of the oldest brands of writing instruments made in the United States. World leaders have used Sheaffer pens in the signing of laws, treaties..."

Moustache wax.

[gcruse]

The UAW shrinks.

[Poohbah]

So, how many Sheaffer pens have YOU bought in the past decade?

[July 4th]

None, but their Scrip fountain pen ink is the best stuff out there.

[billorites]

I don't use pens.

I don't use paper except for my shopping list at the market.

I gave up my second phone line last week because I got a cable modem.

Where I teach I'm one of the old fossils who still gives weekly paper quizzes to my college students. Most other profs do quizzes and assignments on line.

Pens? Please...

[Wally_Kalbacken]

First they came for the pens....

[lilylangtree]

Thanks for the post. I know a person who doesn't use anything but shaeffer pens.

[Howlin]

Bic is French???

[JoeSixPack1]

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and other officials tried to persuade the French-owned company to keep the plant open and save 115 jobs.

ribbit

[blackdog]

I use only barrel draw fountain pens, the kind with the lever. My daughter uses the later fountain refillable cartridge type. Teachers just go ga-ga when you have writing skills and style uncommon to today's masses.

Technology is no substitution for style, artform, and passion for quality.

The buggy-whip thing is so over the top and cavalier. Ever see what a good whip runs these days? Sure, volume is down, but a good one runs over a hundred bucks. I just paid $1200 for a set of sheep shears.

Certain real tangible products of old do not fall into the obsolescence bin like buggy whip whippers so easily make you think.........They flourish quite nicely.

[rollin]

While writing cases for HBS, the most profitable company I wrote about was a "buggy whip manufacturer!"

[primeval patriot]

Writing Instruments Market Grows Despite Digital Revolution

Sales of writing instruments have remained strong, despite the advancements and growth of popularity of the PC, Internet, PDAs and other such technology.

As reported by the SHOPA (School, Home & Office Products Association) - WIMA (Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association) Flash Report, 2002 saw consumer spending reached $4.5 billion for the U.S. writing instruments market.

The growth rate is approximately 3.7% over 2001's sales figures. Projections for 2003 have an expected growth rate of 5% over 2002.

Pens make up 50% of the market, with sales figures at $2.2 billion. With 25% of the market, markers and highlighters reached $940 million and $200 million, respectively. The rest of the market is made up of pencils (20% at $900 million), refills (4% at $200 million), and pen and pencil sets (1% at $50 million).

snip

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Yep, another obsolete product we shouldn't even bother trying to manufacture. No market for them. Going the way of the carriage and buggy whip.

[azcap]

Perhaps Willie Green has a long lost cousin in France who after years of activism against the multinational villain Bic has finanlly succeeded in getting them to close one of their "overseas plants."

[BMiles2112]

Interesting. A French company with a plant in the US. France really should have prevented the outsourcing of these jobs from the hardworking French to we American laborers. The French need protectionism.
One thing in this article doesn't really make sense. The article that this was a union plant, that the employees all had 30 yrs experience minimum, and that these production jobs were paying between $12-13/hr? Seems a wee bit low.

[rock58seg]

Yo Willie! You have finally identified some place where a light rail/trolley system is needed. With a certain amount of retraining, these people could operate a light rail system with less loss of money than Houston. With it's smaller population there should also be less train /car owner interaction. Of course if they built it in a field outside of town it would be even better. They would still achieve the same number of riders anyway. But, There would be less damage to their civic infrastructure that way. Thank you for finally coming up with a place that a win/win situation can be acconplished.