Exclusive interview with Mr. Giuseppe Aquila, Montegrappa Chief Executive Officer
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Montegrappa is an elite Italian brand, mastered in manufacturing writing instruments. Celebrating its centenary in 2012, Montegrappa is also expanding its product range to include feminine items. World renowned authors from Ernest Hemingway to Paulo Coelho penned their famous works using Montegrappa instruments.
As part of centenary celebrations, PenME chats with Montegrappa Chief Executive Officer Giuseppe Aquila to know its rich heritage and plans to celebrate anniversary. “The year 2012 is an important for us, as we will be launching a number of special edition pens across multiple categories which will be unveiled in the coming months.
“We are always keen to celebrate anniversaries with other important persons, companies, people and countries who are also celebrating major milestones. Montegrappa has created a special pen to pay respect to the 40th anniversary of the UAE independence. We are making seven unique pieces that will be presented to each of the Emirate,” Aquila reveals to PenME.
Below are excerpts from the interview:
As the oldest Italian manufacturer of writing instruments established in 1912 and having survived two World Wars and many business uncertainties, what is the secret of Montegrappa’s longevity and how do you define the DNA of your brand?
Montegrappa is defined by its roots in Bassano del Grappa. The company has been operating from the same factory (refurbished and expanded of course to modern standards) on the same site on the bank of the Brenta river in an area of North East Italy that is famous for the resistance during the two World Wars. In fact it was on the Monte Grappa mountain range, immediately to the north of Bassano del Grappa, that the Italians heroically held back the Austrian army and prevented them reaching the plains of the Veneto region. In 1918, the young American Red Cross volunteer, Ernest Hemingway wrote home of the ferocity of the battles on the Monte Grappa and the Piave. The Battle of the Solstice, he wrote (no doubt with a Montegrappa pen), was "a great victory and showed the world what wonderful fighters the Italians are."
We are proud of our Italian ancestry, and we believe that despite the wars and economic ups and downs, this is the fundamental reason why Montegrappa is still around 100 years after we first started making pens in 1912. The Monte Grappa is a symbol of national pride in Italy, representing the heroic resistance in two World Wars, while also being a name synonymous with traditional arts, craftsmanship and literary accomplishment. This is why the brand can celebrate the achievements of great fighting legends, such as Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) and Bruce Lee, while at the same time being proud to have 100 years of celebrated authors as users of our pens, users such as Ernest Hemingway through to some of the world's greatest modern authors, in particular, Paulo Coelho, one of our brand ambassadors.
We also have recently agreed with Sylvester Stallone to be an ambassador for the brand (Stallone is a longtime friend of the brand and user of Montegrappa products) as he symbolizes, in many ways, our brand DNA – Italian heritage, global recognition and the fighting spirit.
What is plan for centenary celebrations?
The year 2012 is an important for us, as we will be launching a number of special edition pens across multiple categories which will be unveiled in the coming months.
We also have a book being published about Montegrappa which has been written by the renowned fashion and luxury writer, Nicholas Foulkes.
Throughout the year, we will celebrate with special events in all of our major markets and these celebrations will culminate in a major event at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2012.
We are always keen to celebrate anniversaries with other important persons, companies, people and countries who are also celebrating major milestones, such as our recent 150th anniversary pen for the unification of Italy, the 40th anniversary of the formation of the UAE; we are also hoping to celebrate Sachin Tendulkar's 100th century either before or during our 100th year.
Montegrappa will pay tribute to the UAE nation by contributing to the celebrations of its 40th anniversary with a special edition pen; please tell us more about this gesture.
Montegrappa has created a special pen to pay respect to the 40th anniversary of the UAE independence. We are making seven unique pieces that will be presented to each of the Emirates, 40 pieces of special combination sets representing the 40 years of independence of the UAE, and 1971 pieces of Rollerball and Fountain Pens to symbolise the year of formation of the UAE, 1971. These pens will go on sale in the UAE at limited retail locations from November 2011. The seven unique pieces will be presented to the rulers of each Emirate on or around the December 2.
The design of this pen uses a new “diffusion bonding” technique that allows us to combine various colours to reproduce the UAE flag on the cap and barrel of the pen. The UAE falcon is also used to decorate the nib and the ink well, and as an extra touch, we have allowed on this special occasion for our trademark 1912 logo (used in the top of most of our pens to represent the year Montegrappa was founded) to be changed to the number 1971 in honour of this important celebration.
Montegrappa, famous for its writing instruments, expanded its production to include watches and other men accessories. You are stepping towards launching perfumes, please tell us more about it.
The Monte Grappa is only a quarter of an hour’s drive from our factory in Bassano del Grappa. I try to go up to the mountain as often as possible to refresh my mind, remind myself of the great heritage of the region or to get inspiration for anything I'm working on. One of the things that always strikes me is the various fragrant scents that you experience at different heights and at different times of year, for example the freshness of spring with the smell of berries and fruits; the intensity of the summer herbs; and the dried woods and the special smell of the gentian in the Autumn season. It was on one of these excursions that I realised that this wonderful and quintessential experience should be integrated into our product family and the obvious way to do this was by developing a Montegrappa fragrance.
The idea, when we developed the “juice”, was to stick close to our heritage and to produce a sophisticated fragrance in line with our product philosophy. Montegrappa, as the world's most exclusive manufacturer of writing instruments, is exclusive and refined, and not necessarily designed to get mass market appeal, but rather to be accepted by a connoisseur, much like a Montegrappa pen that is appreciated by a pen collector.
In order to come up with a fragrance that could be at the peak of its genre, we called on great experience and some of the best minds in the industry to help us come up with the correct formulation, but at all times, keeping as far as possible with Italian and Mediterranean ingredients.
The top notes of the fragrance are citrus and refreshing, consisting of Italian lemon, bergamot from Calabria, a region in the south of Italy renowned for this fruit, Gentian from the Monte Grappa, and other herbs found in Italian mountains such as sage, basil, lavender, and Juniper berries.
We have combined this with a middle note consisting of spices such as clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and cyclamen and a bass note from heavier wood oils such as cedarwood, sandalwood, musk and amber. The fragrance has been well received by everyone who has tried it so far, and we hope to see a good reaction in the market when it is launched later this month.
Montegrappa is a male dominating brand. Are there any plans to include feminine items?
At present, the Montegrappa product range is focused more towards the gentlemen's writing instruments and accessories. However, we do have some ladies collections such as Piccola and Micra collections specifically designed for ladies. We also find that our other lines of unisex or men's products are often used by ladies. In this modern day and age, we have to be careful not to assume that ladies want typically feminine items and we also have to make sure we don't exclude ladies from our normal collections.
We have been surprised sometimes at some of the items that have been popular with ladies. For example, our recent Muhammad Ali limited edition would be an obvious example of a very strongly male oriented product, and yet, due to the white mother of pearl resin giving a quite shiny finish, we have some ladies choose the pen as their preferred pen.
Obviously, it is going to be easier for us to develop more products for ladies as we widen our product offerings. For example, we have launched a collection of watches at Basel last year. So far the collection is a gents’ collection, but we will look at introducing a ladies collection in the coming seasons. Similarly, we recently launched the Nero Uno fragrance. While this is a gentleman's fragrance, we are in no doubt that many ladies will like the smell and we know that perfumes often are not only used by the target gender. Now that we are in the world of fragrances, it will only be a matter of time before we launch a ladies perfume.
What must a buyer look for when buying an exclusive pen? Any tips?
Buying an exclusive pen is not just about the brand. And it’s also not about what claims a brand can make. Montegrappa can claim the world's most exclusive writing instruments, such as the world's most expensive pen ever sold, the Tibaldi Fulgor Nocturnus [sold at 6.3m euros (Dh32.7m) in 2010]; the world's most sought-after limited edition pen - the dragon pen, or the world's most powerful pen – which was given by Boris Yeltsin to Vladimir Putin as a symbol of the Russian presidency… but all of these great achievements, while being a great source of pride, come second to the simple task of making perfect writing instruments.
For example, despite the high cost, and relative ease of modern alternatives using plastics, we still make our ink feeders with natural ebonite, giving a superior and more natural flow of ink. We still use celluloid, an extract of cotton cellulose, which feels cooler to the touch and is more resilient than the modern synthetic resins. Therefore, my main tip to anyone serious about investing in an exclusive pen, is to look into the history of the company and their real competence with materials and production of quality writing instruments. It is not about a flashy brand name, but about finding an item from a manufacturer who really knows what they’re doing with genuine history, experience and passion for making superior writing instruments.
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