Berol U.K. Ltd. has been formed by the amalgamation of five separate companies. The origin and coming together of [some of] these units, along with the background of their parent organisations, is given below. We hope that you find it interesting reading!

ESTERBROOK PENS

The Esterbrook part of our organisation was created in 1856 by a Cornish Quaker, Mr. Richard Esterbrook. He was a stationer by trade and had seen in Britain the move from handcut quill pens to the steel nibs with their consequent advantages. He was also a wise businessman with an eye for opportunity and saw that there was no steel nib manufacturer in the U.S.A., a vast expanding potential market, and he therefore recruited five craftsmen from the John Mitchell factory in Newhall Street, Birmingham, and set up operations in the town of Camden, New Jersey, U.S.A. (an early example of the Brain Drain?)

left:Picture of salesman's sample card sent in by Ms. Reed Holden and her sister Ms. Sarah Holden of Maine

The initial company was named the United States Steel Pen Manufacturing Company, later [GWIN NOTE: 1858]being changed to the Esterbrook Steel Pen Manufacturing Company.[GWIN NOTE:So, if you have any nibs marked United States Steel Pen Manufacturing Co., guess how old they must be!]
 

Detailed attention to the market's needs and a population explosion led the company from strength to strength until at the end of the century, Esterbrook vied with Perry & Co. as to who was the largest manufacturer of pen nibs in the world.

right:  1898  advertisement  for  Esterbrook pens in Munsey's Magazine

By 1896, the Company saw further expansion possibilities in the United Kingdom and therefore appointed as their U.K. agents Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Limited. Development of the product range continued apace and, whereas steel pen nibs had been used with the traditional ink wells, making the necessary accessories rather cumbersome, 1920 saw Esterbrook introduce a fountain pen, with, of course, its own self-contained ink supply.

U.K. Government regulations in 1928 led to restrictions on the import of products from the United States, and a licensing arrangement was made with John Mitchell's in Birmingham to make Esterbrook Pens in the United Kingdom, Mitchell's having transferred their operations to a new factory in Moland Street in 1912.

Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Limited continued as selling agents and introduced the Esterbrook Fountain Pen into Britain in 1930. Although Fountain Pens had been widely available for many years, it wasn't until that year that Esterbrook felt that they had a nib material which would produce a truly practical pen and replace the gold and jewel tips. This material was the precious metal Iridium used under the trade name of Durachrome. Again such an immensely successful product range that the company was reorganised to meet the demand as Esterbrook Hazell Pens, Ltd.

War-time hostilitiescurtailed production to some extent, and the night of November 19-20, 1940, saw the Moland Street factory struck by incendiary bombs on the Bagot Street side. (An anecdote of the time is that the fire-fighting party was having some success with a human bucket chain of water when inadvertently a bucket of paraffin used for degreasing nibs was passed along...) Ouch! > -| Unusually, the wing was rebuilt while the War was still on, but on the condition that 50% of the premises were given over to government departments, one being rather appropriately the Stationery Office and the other the Defence Department where ammunition from the Kynoch Works at Witton was assayed.

In 1947 the Company bought out John Mitchell (this company having been established in 1822 as the world's first manufacturer to cut nibs by machine) and the American Esterbrook Company acquired Hazell pens, the total organisation becoming The Esterbrook Pen Co.

1953 saw Esterbrook America take over Cushman & Denison, who had launched the Flo-Master refillable marker in 1951, and in 1960 Esterbrook Pens and Cushman & Denison in the U.K. were merged.

The postwar years had seen a decline in particularly the export trade to the traditional markets of the British Empire, as those countries had gained independence and, due to American aid, had more dollars to spend in the States on products than pounds in the United Kingdom. Development work continued to reverse the significant fall-off in business, and the years 1960 to 1967 saw a steady introduction of the Mark I versions of the products we know today: Valve Marker, Watercolour, Colourstick, Notewriter, and Permanent Pen, all under the Gem brand name.

The year 1967 saw the Esterbrook Pen Company worldwide taken over by the Venus Pencil Company and the formation of Venus Esterbrook. Production continued in Birmingham, with a gradual move of administration and manufacturing to the much newer factory of Venus in King's Lynn. The Birmingham building was finally vacated in March 1972 but is still standing.