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The write stuff
Neil Cleere founded The Pen
Warehouse in 1999 with partner
Mandy Warren. It’s grown from modest
beginnings to become one of the
leading names in the UK promotional
gifts industry.
PPD caught up with Neil recently to
talk about his roots, his business – and
much more.
The year was 1969 – not exactly the most
auspicious time for a Republic of Ireland
teenager to move to Belfast.
“I had moved from a very peaceful rural setting
to a very troubled part of the island,” Neil Cleere
remembers.
However, against the background of what
became known as “The Troubles”, there were other
big changes happening for Neil.
“My college education took on a much more
technical bias. I attended the Londonderry College
of Technology and the NI Polytechnic before ultimately
gaining a degree in mechanical engineering
at Queens University, Belfast.”
After university, Neil’ moved into production
management, followed by a spell in technical
sales.
“All of this experience was in surface finishing
and decoration.”
And behind it all, a plan.
“I decided quite early on that my long-term goal
would be to build a manufacturing business and
in 1987 I started Graphitec Designs, primarily involved
in the design and manufacture of cardboard
engineered displays and promotional items.”
Neil sold the business in 1994 for personal reasons
but continued to manage it for another five
years.
Then came The Pen Warehouse.
“When we started the business, we were very
lucky to have the support of Leccé Pen, based in
Italy.
“Their range was extensive and value for money
but like many European manufacturers of the
time, they were only interested in supplying large
volume orders. “We therefore had to make a commitment
to a significant UK stockholding and this
enabled us to produce small orders with a quick
turnaround. This allowed us to grow quite quickly.”
There was another key ingredient in this success
– people.
“There was no shortage of ideas that would
grow our pen business but recruiting staff that
could make it work proved to be pivotal to our
success.
“I consider myself very lucky to have surrounded
myself with hard working, flexible, self-motivated
staff.”
So what makes The Pen Warehouse stand out
from the crowd Two words, says Neil – “technical
expertise”.
“Many of our products are designed in-house
and this allows us to supply products to a standard
and design not available elsewhere.
“Several of our machines have been redesigned
with unique motion control that enables us to provide
high quality print at very high speed and large
print areas not normally available elsewhere.
“This combination of unique design and the
economies of scale associated with bulk purchasing
and high speed printing enables us to produce
great quality products at very competitive prices.”
As the company’s name suggests, The Pen
Warehouse hasn’t been tempted to diversify beyond
writing instruments and accessories.
“Firstly, we feel we would lose our identity in the
eyes of our distributors, because we are regarded
as a specialist supplier.
“Secondly, we have an agenda to develop and
extend our range of writing instruments way beyond
current levels and this will require a great
deal of focus. Other, unrelated product development
would be an unwelcome distraction.”
Talking of distractions, there’s little that seems to
divert Neil’s attentions away from his business.
“I am totally absorbed in The Pen Warehouse –
it’s difficult to say where my private life ends and
my working life begins.”
He does, though, admit to a passion for photography.
“As I shoot many of our publicity images and all
of our product images I can justify my indulgence
in what is a fairly expensive hobby,” he jokes.
Ask him to choose his favourite Pen Warehouse
product and he’ll find it a tough question.
“My favourite product is always the one I am
working on at the moment.”
“I am totally absorbed in The Pen Warehouse – it’s
difficult to say where my private life ends and my
working life begins”
Right now, that means evaluating the first production
samples of a new range of display boxes.
As far as past achievements are concerned, he
particularly singles out the space pen (“which required
the input of four different manufacturers
in three separate countries”) and the company’s
Biofree range, which has a special additive that kills
known pathogens.
“Both of those products took years to bring to
a successful completion, and a great deal of negotiation.”
But as always with Neil, his eyes are very much
on the road ahead. “With rising costs of raw materials,
particularly brass, the need to evaluate alternatives
is always high on our agenda.
“The evaluation of composite materials that
have the same characteristics as brass in terms of
weight and feel will remain an ongoing and important
project for us.
“Another very important project is the development
of both flat and round pens suitable for full
colour printing.”
Of course, 2008 has brought its own exceptional
set of challenges for commerce around the
world, but Neil remains bullish about his company’s
performance.
“We’ve been exceptionally lucky, as we have
seen no decline in sales over last year. We were
anticipating growth of about 22 per cent in the last
12 months, which was not realized, so it could be
argued that is a form of loss in itself.
“Personally, I don’t look at it that way, because
we didn’t scale up our infrastructure by 22 per cent
and therefore did not incur the associated costs
of growth.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean the company is
untouched by the effects of the credit crunch.
“We’re seeing much higher levels of bad debt
in recent months than in previous years and we
expect this to continue for some time yet, as the
weaker distributors run out of time and money.
“This factor, when combined with the overall
downturn in business, compounds the problem
for suppliers.
“Very weak balance sheets are characteristic of
many distributors and as the recession runs its
course some of the weaker distributors will be
pushed over the brink.
“Much greater depth is to be found in supplier
companies and I would expect a much lower
percentage of failures at that end of the supply
chain.”
One thing that comes over strongly when you
talk to Neil is his passion for education, a passion
reflected in The Pen Warehouse’s Story Sacks project.
Teachers are supplied with a small sack of
themed contents, normally a book and some
props to bring the story to life.
Neil says: “I come from a background where it
was totally unheard of for children to leave school
without being able to read and write.
“To my astonishment, I discovered that in our
local primary schools here in Aldershot up to 52
per cent of pupils have special needs.”
As for Neil Cleere, his story is far from over –
he’s busy right now, writing the next chapter.
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