Omas Information

[intrepidcva11]

I discovered Omas at Fountain Pen Hospital in New York the early 1990s, bought and still have two Galileo fountain pens, a Galileo roller ball pen and several Paragons. All superb writing instruments. I became friends with David Marks of Marcovici Designs, the original Omas U.S. importer/distributor and through him met Gianluca Malaguti, grandson of founder Armando Simoni. Until the Company's sale to LVMH I was a great admirer of the brand, their world-class products and the superb quality that was their hallmark. When the Malaguti family sold the Company I smelled a bad future. Unhappily it has come to pass.

 

I've cut-and-pasted Manu's first post on this thread - I've added bold/italics emphasis:

 

"we finally reached an agreement and purchased all of Omas stocks and basic materials that will allow us to remake the superb celluloid pens manufactured by Omas since 1925. No doubt, those great celluloid colors are the identity of Omas for all of its pen collectors.

"I cannot help but reflect on Armando Simoni, Raffalella Malaguti and their son Gianluca Simoni Malaguti, for their great work since 1925. My respect for them! One day, I will make an special edition dedicated to "Simoni Malaguti family" in their honor, I promise.

"Although, I must say this acquisition is a bit disproportionate compared to what we already did with Wahl-Eversharp and Conway Stewart, to be honest, it is the riskiest financial operation of my life. We must remember that Omas has lost more than $10 million the last 8 years and LVMH group between 2001 and 2007 lost $5 million. However, in both cases, the company management was incompatible with their size and so I am convinced, that the only way forward is a "family business" management style.

"But with all the efforts I have put into this new venture, nothing will be possible without the support of pen collectors. In order to provide an adequate capital, I'll put online very soon a website called omasoutlet.com, where we will sell all Omas pens (more than 2,000 limited series pens included) new in their boxes. Of course, we should sell at a discount between 30% and 70% off the retail price."

Does Manu not clearly say that he will be keeping the Company in the business of manufacturing and selling Omas pens, even promising a special edition? Instead, no website, only sales at deep discounts of the Omas inventory he bought. Are these not liquidation sales rather than sales to furnish him with capital to continue the business of the Omas Company as a world-class pen manufacturer? Double disappointment.

Manu, keep your promise.

P.S. I just noted that Manu is such an admirer of Omas and the family that he does not know that Rafaella is Simoni's daughter, not wife, and that Gianluca is Simoni's grandson, not "their son."

I'll buy somewhere else.

Edited October 4, 2016 by intrepidcva11

[intrepidcva11]

Got this response:

 

no. in the USA the sales are handle by kenro industries who is the omas distributor.

 

-stylomaniak

 

 

Got it? - all now crystal clear, yes?.....

 

 

what seems clear to me is that Kenro's Omas distributorship legally ended with the Omas Company's bankruptcy filing in Italy. My thought is that Manu has decided on his own not to sell in the U.S. or has some side arrangement not to compete with Kenro who likely had some Omas inventory on hand at the time of the bankruptcy. just some thoughts.

 

.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2016 by intrepidcva11

[dapprman]

Remembering that Manu is trying to start manufacturing the pens again and is Italy based I suspect he'll be looking to work with Kenro in the future and would wish to have a decent relationship with them. Almost certainly they still have stock they've paid full price (distributor) for and so could be hurt if they had to compete with a cheaper source.

 

Only speculation, but to me that makes sense.

[intrepidcva11]

Remembering that Manu is trying to start manufacturing the pens again and is Italy based I suspect he'll be looking to work with Kenro in the future and would wish to have a decent relationship with them. Almost certainly they still have stock they've paid full price (distributor) for and so could be hurt if they had to compete with a cheaper source.

 

Only speculation, but to me that makes sense.

I do so hope that you are right and I am wrong, dapprman, that Manu is recreating the Omas business of manufacturing these wonderful pens. But I have seen no indication of that anywhere in the press.

[JonSzanto]

I do so hope that you are right and I am wrong, dapprman, that Manu is recreating the Omas business of manufacturing these wonderful pens. But I have seen no indication of that anywhere in the press.

 

Sometimes it is best to only report publicly when everything is in place and you know you can deliver on your promises. There are more than enough stories full of false hope that get printed every day...

[mirosc]

 

Sometimes it is best to only report publicly when everything is in place and you know you can deliver on your promises. There are more than enough stories full of false hope that get printed every day...

... or posted in the internet

 

I hope for the best but I'm very sceptical.

[jharlow]

Wow! Congratulations, can't wait to see new old stock.

[Arctic_Wolf]

Hi there, any word on when OmasOutlet.com will be up?

[intrepidcva11]

Wow! Congratulations, can't wait to see new old stock.

Don't hold your breath, J. Last post from manu was end of July. Appears he has no intention to resuscitate Omas, only to liquidate the inventory that he likely bought on the cheap from the bankruptcy. It seems clear that his comments............

 

"we finally reached an agreement and purchased all of Omas stocks and basic materials that will allow us to remake the superb celluloid pens manufactured by Omas since 1925. No doubt, those great celluloid colors are the identity of Omas for all of its pen collectors.

"I cannot help but reflect on Armando Simoni, Raffalella Malaguti and their son Gianluca Simoni Malaguti, for their great work since 1925. My respect for them! One day, I will make an special edition dedicated to "Simoni Malaguti family" in their honor, I promise."

..................were just a lot of wind. Really too sad.

[mulrich]

Manu hasn't even logged into FPN since August. I can see lots of reasons why we haven't heard anything since then (e.g., the venture proved more costly than anticipated, he chose to sell the pens to personal contacts, a more pressing business demand came up, it's taking longer than expected to close the deal or inventory the collection or restart production, etc) so I'm not giving up hope that we'll see something from him in the future.

 

I'm happy that he's at least trying (or tried) to get more OMAS to the market (although if he didn't, the value of some of my pens might increase).

[intrepidcva11]

 

Don't hold your breath, J. Last post from manu was end of July. Appears he has no intention to resuscitate Omas, only to liquidate the inventory that he likely bought on the cheap from the bankruptcy. It seems clear that his comments............

 

"we finally reached an agreement and purchased all of Omas stocks and basic materials that will allow us to remake the superb celluloid pens manufactured by Omas since 1925. No doubt, those great celluloid colors are the identity of Omas for all of its pen collectors.

"I cannot help but reflect on Armando Simoni, Raffalella Malaguti and their son Gianluca Simoni Malaguti, for their great work since 1925. My respect for them! One day, I will make an special edition dedicated to "Simoni Malaguti family" in their honor, I promise."

..................were just a lot of wind. Really too sad.

 

this guy was nothing more than a bankruptcy liquidator, except he deceived and lied to his buyers.

[sciumbasci]

I give him credit. Isn't he, along with Wahlnut, behind Wahl-Eversharp resurrection?

They did a pretty good job.

[EclecticCollector]

this guy was nothing more than a bankruptcy liquidator, except he deceived and lied to his buyers.

Doesn't the upcoming Armando Simoni Club pen fulfill this promise?

[FriendAmos]

this guy was nothing more than a bankruptcy liquidator, except he deceived and lied to his buyers.

 

To whom did he lie, and how exactly?

[saskia_madding]

Any word on when the sales will be up and running?

[dms525]

These pens are for sale on ebay right now.

 

David

[intrepidcva11]

Doesn't the upcoming Armando Simoni Club pen fulfill this promise?

I was unaware of this new pen, have checked it out. I was wrong. Not technically Omas but certainly close enough in spirit. My apologies to Manu.

[Uncial]

I doubt omasoutlet will ever be used. Very few would have anticipated the utterly crazy prices Omas pens are currently achieving on eBay. If there is old stock to be sold it doesn't make an awful lot of business sense to sell them for fixed prices when there's a kind of Omas fever on the bay.

[FriendAmos]

Any word on when the sales will be up and running?

 

The sales have been "up and running", on eBay, for several months now. A new lot each week, starting on ever Wednesday,

[notsimar]

I've recently seen some unusual bidding behaviour on the auctions with one bidder constant bidding on most of the auctions but not winning many. Its driven me away from looking at them recently.