Perusing the web for pen news, I’m always interested at how much attention that pens, particularly fountain pens, get in India.
But it shouldn’t be surprising, I guess, given how popular pens appear to be there. The Hindustan Times reported recently that overall writing instrument sales have been growing by 10 percent a year, and fountain pen sales by nearly 5 percent.
“Ten years ago, our sales of fountain pens stood at 15% of total pen sales whereas currently, the share stands at 40%,” said Nikhil Ranjan, CEO at William Penn, India’s only multi-brand retail store chain that boasts of the most premium brands in fine writing instruments.
There are several major pen makers and importers in India, including Linc Pens, with a range of disposables and higher-end pens, and Luxor, which makes its own range of pens and also sells Parkers. Uniball also maintains a healthy presence in India, often hiring prominent Bollywood stars to sell the pens.
(And check out this thread at Fountain Pen Network that attempts to round up all the various makers of fountain pens in the country.)
Pens also are a common topic in the Indian media, whether a celebration of a pen maker trying to create the world’s smallest fountain pen or a profile of a prolific fountain pen collector.
I know we have some readers from India. We’d love to hear from you guys, or any penthusiasts with experience in India, about the pen community there.
