Faber-Castell

Faber-Castell AG is one of the world's largest and oldest manufacturers of pens, pencils, other office supplies (e.g., staplers, slide rules, erasers, rulers)[1] and art supplies,[2] as well as high-end writing instruments and luxury leather goods. Headquartered in Stein, Germany, it operates 14 factories and 20 sales units throughout the globe. The Faber-Castell Group employs a staff of approximately 8,000 and does business in more than 120 countries.[3] The House of Faber-Castell is the family which founded and continues to exercise leadership within the corporation. They manufacture about 2 billion pencils in more than 120 different colors every year.[4]

This article is about the company. For the family, see Faber-Castell family.
Faber-Castell AG
TypeJoint stock company
IndustryStationery
PredecessorBleistift-Fabrik vorm. Johannes Faber 
Founded1761 (1761)
FounderKaspar Faber
Headquarters
Stein, Bavaria
,
Germany
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Stefan Leitz (CEO)
  • Constantin Neubeck (CFO)
  • Countess Mary von Faber-Castell
ProductsArt materials, Writing instruments
Revenue€555 million (2020)
Number of employees
8,000 (2020)
Websitewww.faber-castell.com

History
Faber-Castell shop at the former Geroldsgrün plant, Bavaria[5]

Faber-Castell was founded in 1761 at Stein near Nuremberg by cabinet maker Kaspar Faber (1730–84) as the A.W. Faber Company, and has remained in the Faber family for eight generations. It opened branches in New York (1849), London (1851), Paris (1855), and expanded to Vienna (1872) and St. Petersburg (1874). It opened a factory in Geroldsgrün, Bavaria, where slide rules were produced. It expanded internationally and launched new products under Kaspar Faber's ambitious great-grandson, Johann Lothar Freiherr von Faber (1817–96).[6]

In 1900, after the marriage of Lothar's granddaughter and heiress with a count of Castell, the A.W. Faber enterprise took the name of Faber-Castell and a new logo, combining the Faber motto, Since 1761, with the "jousting knights" of the Castells' coat-of-arms.[7] A.W. Faber is the oldest brand-name pencil continuously sold in the US, having begun sales in 1870.[4]

Today, the company operates 10 factories and 22 sales units, with six in Europe, four in Asia, three in North America, five in South America, and one each in Australia and New Zealand. The Faber-Castell Group employs a staff of approximately 8,000 and does business in more than 120 countries.[3]

Products

Beginning in the 1850s Faber started to use graphite from Siberia and cedar wood from Florida to produce its pencils.[4]

Faber-Castell is well known for its brand of PITT Artist pens. The pens, used by comic and manga artists such as Adam Hughes,[8] emit an India ink that is both acid-free and archival, and comes in a variety of colors.

The following chart contains all the Faber-Castell product lines.[9]

Category Products
Professional Art and Graphic (Green Line)Pencils (graphite and color), pastels, charcoals, erasers, sharpeners
Kids & School Art and Graphic (Red Line)Pencils, watercolors, brushes, markers, crayons, erasers, sharpeners, modeling dough, oil pastels, papers, connector pens
Technical Drawing (Green Line)Mechanical pencils, refills
PensFountain pens, ballpoint pens, refills
Luxury PensFountain pens, ballpoint pen
PapersNotebooks, diaries, creative papers, reams, calendars

From about 1880 to 1975 Faber-Castell was also one of the world's major manufacturers of slide rules, the best known of which was the 2/83N.

Manufacturing

There are about 16 manufacturing plants (in 10 countries) which mainly manufacture writing instruments.[10]

CountriesPlant NameYear IncorporatedProducts Manufactured
Costa RicaNeily1996Pencils (graphite and colour)
PeruLima1965Erasers, rules and writing equipment, and finetip and colour markers
ColombiaBogotá1976Wax crayons and drawing accessories
BrazilPrata1989Nurseries for pine trees and sawmill
BrazilManaus1989Erasers,rules and writing equipment
BrazilSão Carlos1950sPencils (graphite and colour), makeup, school line (pencils, sharpeners, poster and finger paints, crayons,markers) technical and fine arts line (permanent markers), office line (highlighter, executive and promotional pens),notebooks and creative papers
IndiaGoa1998Erasers,rules and writing equipment, and finetip and colour markers
AustriaEngelhartszell1963Highlighters and permanent-ink markers (manufacturing, assembly and paints)
MalaysiaKuala Lumpur1978Research & Development, Asia and Pacific office Sales, school line (pencils,erasers and writing products)
NigeriaEnugu1961Makeup Products
ChinaGuangzhou2000school line (sharpeners, erasers and writing instruments)
IndonesiaBekasi1990Pencils (graphite and colour)
GermanyStein1761Research & Development, global sales and marketing office, school line (pencils, erasers and writing products), premium line (pencils, erasers and writing products)
  • Malaysian tri-Grip pencils with eraser caps and a sharpener
  • Erasers
  • Polychromos pencil line
  • 2/83N slide rule
  • Poly mechanical pencil
  • TK lead pointer and 2 mm pencil lead

See also

References
  1. Faber-Castell International. Office Products Archived 2009-12-16 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Faber-Castell International. Products for FineArts and FineWriting Archived 2009-12-15 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Faber-Castell International: Facts & Figures". faber-castell.com. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  4. "Inside the oldest pencil company in the world". CNN. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  5. Unsere Markenshops. [https://www.faber-castell.de/service/stores/markenshops
  6. "History". Faber-Castell International. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  7. Faber-Castell International. The Company Logo Archived 2014-08-12 at archive.today
  8. Coulson, Steve. "Adam Hughes – Anatomy of a sketch, Pt3 – The Tools" YouTube; May 15, 2006, Accessed September 8, 2010
  9. Faber Castell products Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
  10. Müller, Nicole. "The international Faber-Castell Production Sites". Faber-Castell. Archived from the original on 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2016-05-15.
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