FACE TO FACE: MICHAEL GUTBERLET, CEO, KAWECO RIGHT: Michael Gutberlet has been involved in the writing instrument industry his whole life.
Reviving
a classic!
RIGHT: Michael (centre) with his father Horst (left) and a Japanese business partner in 1980. BELOW: New colours and new finishes keep the range fresh.
Kaweco is a name synonymous with heritage and authenticity. At the centre of its modern revival is CEO Michael Gutberlet, whose personal journey with the brand is as intertwined with nostalgia as it is with entrepreneurial resilience. Stationery Matters caught up with Michael ahead of his keynote talk at London International Stationery Show this year.
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aweco’s history dates back to 1883, when it was established as Heidelberg Dip Pen Factory. When Ludwig Koch and Rudolf Weber took over in 1899, the company was renamed Kaweco. The company introduced many innovative designs over the early 1900s, but perhaps its most famous is the Kaweco Sport, introduced in 1911. It was something special: a pocket fountain pen that, when closed, measured only 10.5cm, making it easy to carry, but grew to a normal size when the cap was posted. At the time, the pen was marketed especially to the upper classes in evening attire and to sportsmen. That’s why it was given the name ‘Sport’. The company thrived in the 1950s and 1960s, but the 1970s
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brought hard times, with growing competition from mass produced writing instruments and finally in 1980 Kaweco closed. This might have been the end of the Kaweco story, but thanks to Michael Gutberlet, it wasn’t. Michael Gutberlet’s connection to Kaweco began in the 1960s. “In 1960 my father, Horst Gutberlet, founded his own company selling refills, ballpoint pen mechanisms, metal tubes and plastic components in southern Germany, with Kaweco among his customers,” he explains. After he finished school, Michael worked at a metal factory in Nuremberg which made pen tubes for Lamy, Montblanc, Pelikan and others. “This training helped with the transition to working for my father’s business later on.” It was at a flea market in the early 1980s that the journey that would eventually lead to taking on Kaweco started. “At a flea market in Nuremberg, I found an old, gold-plated safety pen from Italy,” recalls Michael. “I gave this to my father as a birthday present. This sparked a passion for
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collecting, and over the years we amassed hundreds of old writing instruments. “In the early 1990s, the family business was thriving in component manufacturing, supplying major names in the stationery industry. However, the limitations of that model became increasingly clear,” says Michael. “We were constantly dependent – on the one hand on our customers, who wanted specific parts at specific prices, and on the other hand on our suppliers and partners, who often dictated everything to us.” Seeking independence, the family turned to its own collection. “So one day we laid out our collection on a large conference table and asked ourselves: ‘What could we revive? What would be new because it has long been forgotten?’” Among the many pieces, one stood out: the compact pocket fountain pen. “The pocket fountain pen caught our eye, and out of 10 different models from various manufacturers, the Kaweco Sport stood out in particular.”