Filling a Need: William Penn and Sheaffer

As Sheaffer celebrates its 110th anniversary in 2023, 20-year-old Indian fine writing retailer William Penn is giving this legacy U.S. writing instruments brand a new lease on life.

How do you grow your company once you've dominated the luxury pen retail space of the second-most-populous nation on H Earth? India’s William Penn corporation has purchased the once-vaunted U.S. luxury pen manufacturer Sheaffer.

“Our love of Sheaffer dates back to the early 2000s,” says Nikhil Ranjan, co-founder of William Penn, about the company’s decision to acquire Sheaffer. When the opportunity came to buy the company, we couldn’t pass it up.”

Sitting in his Bengaluru office, Ranjan is dressed in business casual. The honks and buzz of morning traffic can be heard in the background as he sips his coffee. In his mid-40s, Ranjan affects a steady confidence and enthusiasm for the challenges ahead. He has a quick smile and sense of humor. Smart and capable, Ranjan is not the stuffy executive we have come to expect of the global conglomerates who own other pen brands in portfolios so large they barely pay attention to the pens.

The original William Penn store opened as one of India’s first comprehensive stationery shops in 2002. Realizing quickly that many of his customers were most attracted to the store’s selection of writing instruments, Ranjan says that he began reaching out to the major pen manufacturers of the world to begin increasing his company’s offerings.

There was no formal distribution of Sheaffer in India until 2003, when William Penn became the brand’s exclusive distributor in the country. People really loved Sheaffer as soon as he brought it into the store, he says.

When asked who his customers are, Ranjan says, It is divided into two parts: the pen enthusiasts who prefer fountain pens to anything else, and a large portion of people also love pens] for gifting.”