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Is OMAS still in business ?

Hi there, I've been researching the whereabouts of this company, 2020, but can't find much. I read on a financial paper that it had been bought by a chinese / japanese luxury group a few years back but on the website of this group the brand does not appear. There seems to be a bit of a mistery around it.
Do any of you have fresher news ?
Thank you
Marco
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
According to Wikipedia they went into liquidation in 2016. In 2018 Italian pen maker Ancora acquired the brand and assets, and relaunched the products retaining the OMAS name and branding.
 
Thank you. I visited the website. Searching for Omas return nothing. Only a press release, dating back to 2018, on Omas's acquisition.
Price of Ancora' pens are more than exorbitant.
Sent them an email asking if they continue servicing Omas' pens. The HQ is in Cyprus.
I'll see what they come back with.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
Yep, Omas is no more. However, if Omas is Nirvana, its Foo Fighters is Scribo. UK Fountain Pens has a nice write up here: Scribo? “Feel the writing” is spot on - https://ukfountainpens.com/2019/11/15/scribo-feel-the-writing-is-spot-on/ Apparently, Scribo pens have some the old Omas magic, while still doing their own thing.

Related, Leonardo was founded by former Delta employees and I believe has Delta's old stock of celluloid. Leonardo's last few releases have been well-received by the on-line pen reviewers. So if you like classic Italian pens, that's another one to watch.
 
Yep, Omas is no more. However, if Omas is Nirvana, its Foo Fighters is Scribo. UK Fountain Pens has a nice write up here: Scribo? “Feel the writing” is spot on - https://ukfountainpens.com/2019/11/15/scribo-feel-the-writing-is-spot-on/ Apparently, Scribo pens have some the old Omas magic, while still doing their own thing.

Related, Leonardo was founded by former Delta employees and I believe has Delta's old stock of celluloid. Leonardo's last few releases have been well-received by the on-line pen reviewers. So if you like classic Italian pens, that's another one to watch.

I've been quite happy with my resin Momento Zero, so I suppose I'll second that recommendation.
 
I don’t think OMAS is still active, but there is the Armando Secundi Club is somehow related (OMAS is an acronym for Oficina Meccanica Armando Simoni). Armando Simoni Club uses some of the leftover celluloid from OMAS and makes pens very similar to some of the OMAS (and every bit as fine - I have both).
 

nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
Too bad they went under.

They made some good inks, too.
full
 
I feel sorry for the loss of any business but the quality of the management was not up to current standards. The marketing of the Omas brand left a great deal to be desired with no direct sales force and retail outlets carrying very little stock and even less enthusiasm.

In 2014 I put forward a marketing plan to Omas which would provide a real boost to the company sales figures in year one and progressively build on those figures to 2019 with representation in every B and M store, department store and online opportunities.

Omas were not interested, they offered to sell me pens at 10% discount from the recommended retail price and I could sell them however I wished subject to a minimum order of 300.
 
The Italian way, no vision of the future, only today counts.
Ancora replied, they told me that at the moment they are not servicing Omas pens as there are no spares.
 
I thought OMAS' marketing strategy was "we make pens out of Arco celluloid". It certainly seems to be ASC's strategy.

I'd forgotten about the ink, those bottles do look cool.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
I thought OMAS' marketing strategy was "we make pens out of Arco celluloid". It certainly seems to be ASC's strategy.
Most OMAS pens were made from a vegetal resin not celluloid.
My understanding is that the Arco celluloid was OMAS' top shelf stuff, and even then it didn't take on its current legendary status until either the celluloid was no longer made or OMAS went under (can't remember which). In any case, I presume ASC is trading on the current collector demand for a material with a very limited supply.

But celluloid of any kind is extremely rare these days. I think all production has stopped, hasn't it? There's just no market anymore besides luxury pens, especially since they stopped make film reels from it a long time ago. Funny to think that back in the 40's and 50's, it was the cheap stuff that Esterbrooks were made from, and now its crazy expensive unobtainium.
 
But celluloid of any kind is extremely rare these days. I think all production has stopped, hasn't it? There's just no market anymore besides luxury pens, especially since they stopped make film reels from it a long time ago. Funny to think that back in the 40's and 50's, it was the cheap stuff that Esterbrooks were made from, and now its crazy expensive unobtainium.

Can you imagine the folks from Sheaffer that developed jade green celluloid finding out about the recent trend for high end ebonite pens?
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
Can you imagine the folks from Sheaffer that developed jade green celluloid finding out about the recent trend for high end ebonite pens?
I know! Or for that matter, how many $ million worth of R&D did pen companies do developing new and improved filling systems over the decades to end up at eyedrop fillers being the hottest thing in 2020.

But on high-end ebonite, I believe that comes from Japan, where pen tech evolved rather more slowly. The Japanese perfected the ebonite pen as a work of art, and it’s the best base material for urushi and maki-e.
 
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