I remember reading a mailing that went out to the trade some years ago with the title ‘Are Your Suppliers Your Competitors?’ Although this was not anything to do with pens, or perhaps I should say personalised pens, the tenor of the mailshot was that if you are a wise distributor you should be careful who you buy your promotional gifts from because they may be connected with an end-user selling arm or may be openly selling to both trade and end-user. It is an irony that very company some years later fell into the same boat themselves.

I remember when reading it that the message could be seen as ‘scare’ tactics and could backfire. I believed then as I do now that I have to live in the world as it is and not the way I want it to be and as long as distributors are making a conscious decision based on the full knowledge of the security issues surrounding passing their customer’s details to a supplier that is ‘running with the hare and hunting with the hound’ then that is their prerogative. In all fairness to the mailshot in question I think the message was a valid one as it was intended as thought provoking.

I am always wary of making claims publicly about issues such as these because a small part of me screams that I am trying to gain advantage by claiming some sort of moral high-ground and I could not reconcile that with my own values, so I kept quiet – like most other people. My general view is that Distributors are capable of making up their own minds and you cannot blame any supplier for trying to sell to whoever they want – that is capitalism and enterprise and if you rob people of that you will also rob the industry of some of its leading lights.

You may at this point wonder why I am bothering to write this news item, apart from the obvious one of putting important keywords relevant to promotional pens in here and there (…see I’m at it again), well it is because I am beginning to notice a very worrying trend – that of the seemingly trade exclusive supplier selling to the end-user through ‘cloaking’ companies.

That will be the subject of my next article in pens.co.uk – The Home of Printed Pens, so keep tuned in.

Since its inception over 12 years ago The Pen Warehouse has been a trade-only supplier of pens or more to the point Personalised Pens and promotional pens.

We are now the leading pen supplier to the trade, particularly in the UK  and we owe our success to the loyal support of our distributors spread across the length and breadth of the country. Our success is based on trust and we believe that this will hold us in good stead for the future. We are certainly in a very changing world as far as the distribution of promotional gifts go, particularly because of the internet. My own sales training many years ago was based on customer-facing skills and how to turn leads into orders. Today, as far as the internet goes those skills are largely irrelevant as online business is very impersonal. Today, success on the internet depends on a different skill-set; largely technical because of search engine optimisation and everything that surrounds it. Our job as a trade supplier however, remains the same as it is largely a backroom supporting role for our distributors. It is true that certain adaptations had to be made to support the type of distributor that trades online but fundamentally things have not changed at all. It still boils down to good service, great prices and choice. However, it is easy to get carried away with the importance of online business as it is still a very small percentage of the total business being done. Distributors, in the main have a good rapport with their customers and enjoy a good percentage of repeat business where prices are less sensitive. Whether you trade online, sell through traditional means or a bit of both it matters little to us here at The Pen Warehouse – it boils down to the fact that our pedigree as a trade-exclusive supplier is unrivalled.

We are beginning to see the emergence of several ‘cloaking’ companies on the internet purporting to be independent distributors but are in actual fact end-user arms of trade suppliers that don’t wish to be seen jumping ship – just yet anyway. That may be the subject of a future article so keep tuned into our newsroom here at www.pens.co.uk – the home of printed pens for business.

Walking around trade shows one cannot help but notice that pens and in particular personalised pens are now the promotional giveaways of choice for most exhibitors. The Pen Warehouse is ideally placed to help our distributors exploit this market because of our extensive range of low-cost promotional pens and pencils. (Cheap in other words)

I remember being an avid watcher of  ‘Tomorrow’s World’ when it was a popular television series because , like many others I believed they were giving us a glimpse of the future. In reality virtually all the weird and wonderful predictions never came true. We all thought that by now we would only need to get up each morning and point our robots in the right direction, load them up with the tasks for the day and then go and lie on the beach. Funnily it never happened; but then a small part of me never believed it would. We are working longer and harder than ever, even though technology has eased some of our burdens we have managed to create must-have desires for umpteen gadgets and general trappings of the modern world that we actually have less time to enjoy them. A great example of this is the ridiculous notion of  ‘The Paperless Office’. I first saw this idea on ‘Tomorrows World’ and I remember thinking to myself that I should not take the programme too seriously. We have never used so much paper and you need pens to write on it so there is no realistic prospect of paper and pens disappearing until we become telepathic. That is precisely why people give out printed pens at exhibitions. You will notice that there isn’t a single mention of a giveaway stylus for your PDA – no Siree!

So here’s to good old cheap plastic pens, the world revolves around them and any predictions to the contrary is just plain balmy! Give us a call for free samples and we will guide you through the selection process….Just an afterthought – why not have a look at our range of  Spectrum ball pens; you can have them printed in full colour – now that is something for Tomorrows World!

The original concept of Lecce Pen Company to develop a hybrid post-consumer recycled material for the production of pens and in particular promotional pens has now opened up a more widespread application for this new and unique material – EcoAllene. Here is a list of products currently available or are under development.

• Recycled Personalised Pens: These products form the backbone of The Lecce Pen Company. The latest and most innovative product available is their range of Envirostick Ball Pens. This is a unique product in that it features a completely recycled pen refill, the world’s first and only pen to actually have one.
• Recycled Pen Refills: A truly unique product that is now finding its way into many personalised pens.
• Recycled Yo-Yos: Available with imprintable paper discs in up to full colour.
• Recycled Desktop Items: This includes tape dispensers, visiting card holders, pen pots, rulers and many more in development
• Recycled Shopping Bag Handles: Reusable handle to ease the carrying of polyethylene carrier shopping bags
• Recycled Costume-Jewellery: This include hair bands, clips and ties
• Recycled Hotel Giveaways: These include mirrors, combs and sewing kits.
• Recycled Games: These include spinning tops and puzzles
• Recycled Doorstops: Wedge-shaped door stop made from EcoAllene
• Recycled Storage Cases:EcoAllene is proving to be a great material where continual flexing is required and the lids of low cost storage boxes are proving to be a very useful application for this material.
• Recycled Waste Bins: Everything you could want from a recycled material, durability, low cost and eco friendly.
• Recycled Keyrings: These are now available in a variety of animal shapes and also as recycled promotional keyrings with imprintable inserts.
• Recycled Golf Items – A small but growing range of recycled products such as ball markers, pitch forks and golf tees.
• Recycled Building Materials: We are beginning to see the emergence of a huge range of building materials using EcoAllene, from doors to decorative trim.

The list is almost endless but the important point to remember is that thisrecycled material is unique and certifiably post-consumer. Therefore its credentials are beyond reproach and as such will shape the future direction of The Lecce Pen Company.

Keep tuned in to more informative news on developments from The Pen Warehouse – The home of promotional printed pens and pencils.

Picking up from where we left off in part 3, Lecce Pen’s new and innovative development of EcoAllene, it is clear this new material and the patented process surrounding it will shape the future direction of the company and its involvement in the promotional pen industry.

Over seven years in the making, the development of a material that uses spent drinks cartons has not only produced a finished material that is unique but also an entire production plant that is now being sold throughout the world as a turnkey solution to the problem of waste drinks cartons. Already almost twenty million Euros has been sunk into the project to not only develop the material but also a system of replicating the results. This plant is on a large-scale basis and requires significant levels of investment for each installation. A number of plants are already under construction across the world under license from Lecce Pen. The company retains its sole right to manufacture personalised pens but it seems that EcoAllene has such wide appeal for the production of a large number of consumer and industrial products that promotional pens will be a minor proportion of its applications.

The main obstacle in the production of EcoAllene was finding a method by which the aluminium component of the drinks carton could be homogenised with the polyethylene component so it could be injection moulded. This required the development of, not only large-scale plant but also specialist dies for the final moulding so that the flow characteristics of the new material could be exploited. The level of R&D required could not simply have been resourced by a single organisation as cross-platform synergy required the involvement of several previously unrelated manufacturing, scientific and political bodies to work closely together, sharing knowledge with the ultimate aim of solving a very old problem associated with one particular area of recycling – that of beverage cartons for milk, juice and numerous other similar containers.

The products that are now emerging from EcoAllene will be dealt with shortly, so keep an eye out for the next article coming very soon from The Pen Warehouse – the home of Printed Promotional pens.

The changes that Lecce Pen embarked on several years ago are now coming to fruition and the best example of this innovative approach is apparent in the commitment to ground-breaking product development of promotional eco friendly pens. The following is a list of innovative pens that Lecce introduced to the market as world’s firsts

• Biodegradable Pens – For over 25 years now, Lecce Pen has been manufacturing biodegradable pens for both retail and promotional markets. Long before we were aware of the impending social pressure to conserve and recycle Lecce Pen company embarked on the development of personalised pens based on corn starch – a natural material adapted to suit injection moulding. These were collectively known as the green pens range and they are still great sellers today. These can be overprinted with your corporate logo or message in up to six colours here at The Pen Warehouse and an optional express pen printing service is also available.
• Recycled PET Pens – These were the world’s first recycled plastic pens and they were manufactured from recycled PET water bottles. Sadly, the product was discontinued but The Pen Warehouse embarked on a project of their own to make a range of recycled plastic pens, the most popular of which is our Panther Eco Extra Ball Pens. These have been great selling pens now in the UK for several years with the benefit that they are available at prices very similar to normal plastic pens.
• One of the main reasons Lecce Pen Company decided to discontinue their range of PET promotional pens was because they wished to channel their resources into the development of a plastic material based on recycled drinks cartons. Whereas there was a burgeoning market for recycled PET bottles, no recycling process existed that could recover a usable material from used drinks cartons. This was a category of waste that had to go to landfill and it was not biodegradable and this posed a huge ecological problem for the most eco-friendly minded scientists. This moral obligation to develop a process to effectively recover all the materials used in drinks cartons so it could be recycled fell to Lecce Pen and Tetra Pak. The material that ultimately came out of many year’s of R&D culminated in the development of EcoAllene, a truly innovative material that is now being used in a small but growing range of promotional items.

This will be dealt with in a future article coming to you very soon from The Pen Warehouse – The home of printed pens

In the past ten years we have witnessed unparalleled changes in the stationery business  and probably the most severe changes have been felt by European manufacturers of pens in general and promotional pens in particular.

Lecce Pen Company, like all other major European manufacturers of personalised pens has not been immune to these changes as they fight a losing battle with Far-Eastern manufacturers with much lower cost bases, lower taxation and less restrictive legislation. In the majority of cases European manufacturers of both plastic and metal pens have either closed down, entered into collaboration with Far-Eastern manufacturers or simply scaled back their operation as they adjust to this new playing field that is far from level. Lecce Pen Company is no exception but ‘distribution’ is powerful and Lecce’s well-executed approach to adapting a large organisation to these new changes has set the standard for other European pen companies. Their approach can simply summed up in a single word; ‘innovation‘.

As Euro politicians sat on their hands and watched their non-interventionist policies decimate so many European manufacturers across practically every industry Lecce Pen recognised very early on that their salvation lay, not with Brussels, but in their very unique ability to evolve and innovate. They set about building on their pedigree as the world’s original manufacturer of environmentally-friendly products  by developing materials that had unquestionable credentials with regard to recycling and biodegradability. There were numerous projects that led to ground-breaking developments, never seen before in the stationery industry with regard to sustainability. This was at a time when the rest of the world had not woken up to the problems facing our planet and ‘environmentalism’ had not touched the lips of our politically-correct masters in Europe.

The changes that Lecce Pen embarked on several years ago are now coming to fruition and will be addressed in an upcoming article very soon. Please keep tuned into our news items on this popular website –  the home of promotional printed pens.

My association with The Lecce Pen Company and their range of pens is now in its twentieth year – a very significant anniversary for me. In that time I have seen unimaginable changes, not only in our companies and the way they operate but also in how personalised pens are marketed.

I can remember the first day I ever set foot on Italian Soil and it was for the sole purpose of securing a Lecce Pen distributorship for the UK and Ireland for their entire range of promotional pens. These were the days when European pen manufacturers reigned supreme globally and Lecce Pen Company was the Daddy of them all. In all honesty I had no idea at the time how preposterous my approach would seem to them – I was relatively new to the pen business and only employed a handful of printers in a building that was formerly used as a cowshed.

It is little wonder that I failed in my attempts to gain this distributorship because they were already represented in the UK by Raimart – a leading supplier of printed pens at the time and of course there was that little issue of credibility because I had no pedigree in the pen business. It was a probably case of pity combined with the fact that my audacity (naivety?) shocked them to the point that I eventually persuaded them to let me sell one of their pens they planned to discontinue. It was a horrible square thing that looked like the pen Noah used to document the animals as the entered the ark. I came back and had all their remaining stock shipped to me with not a clue how I was going to sell square pens in a market dominated by modern round ones. After a bit of research I found that the only possible outlet was with foil blockers, usually guys in their garage selling small orders of pens, bookmarks and coasters in publications like Exchange & Mart. It took a while before I sold them all and then went back to Lecce for more and they said…..sorry we have discontinued it!… WHAT!!!!

I could feel my Celtic temperament was going to let me down …again but outwardly kept my composure and asked them for another no-hoper and they gladly obliged. This scenario repeated itself for a year or two and eventually I replaced their existing distributor. In our twenty-year relationship we have sold countless millions of their pens and although a little part of me would like to take some credit I know our success is down to the quality and style of their pens. Indeed a level of quality and style that eventually led to their designs being the most-copied by other pen manufacturers across the world.

In the past ten years we have witnessed unparalleled changes in the promotional pen industry, particularly with the emergence of Far-Eastern suppliers but that will be the subject matter of a forthcoming news article.

Keep tuned into our website’s ‘News’ section here at pens.co.uk – The home of Promotional Printed Pens.

Personalised pens serve a number of purposes for businesses. Cheap plastic promotional pens are a great way to get your corporate message in the hands of potential new customers at exhibitions or trade shows. Using printed pens in your business is a simple way to ensure your employees are living and breathing your corporate identity. Offering your customers high quality promotional metal pens, engraved with their name or your business name will certainly endear them to you and your business. In a time of recession when giving cash bonus’s is frowned upon, personalised pens are one way you can reward your employees for:

• Exceeding targets
•  Loyal service
• Innovative ideas
• Winning New Business

Of course the majority of people would place a higher value on a cash bonus as a reward for achieving sales targets. However, during recessionary periods when pay and bonus’s are frozen even for successful multinational businesses, personalised pens are a nice alternative and let employees know that even though additional financial remuneration is not available to reward success, their efforts and achievements are still recognised by the business.

Rewarding the achievements of your employees with personalised pens is a great way to drive the subliminal messaging of your business. Consider the employee who exceeds their challenging sales targets and is rewarded with an elegant engraved metal pen, not only does the employee appreciate that their efforts and results are being recognised by the business and therefore continues with their efforts to exceed expectations, but its also a great advertisement for your business. Just think of the impression your customers will have when your sales reps arrive armed with a top of the range engraved pens. Not only does it show you take pride in the appearance of your sales force it also drives more subtle agendas about the success of your business.