New Sheaffer owner says museum in good hands

Some of the new finishes for Sheaffer Pens were unveiled at the Sheaffer Pen museum in Fort Madison Friday in a meet and greet with the pen brand's new owner Nikhil Ranjan.

Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

Museum in good hands

“I think it’s in good hands and what’s exciting to me, and the City of Fort Madison should be excited as well, is that they are all in on supporting the museum - keeping it here and keeping it intact,"”

Russell Sheaffer, great-grandson of W.A. Sheaffer founder of Sheaffer Pen

FORT MADISON – The Sheaffer Pen museum seems to be in pretty good hands. So is the Sheaffer brand, says its new owner.
Nikhil Ranjan, the owner of William Penn an India-based stationary and specialty gift company, purchased the pen brand about 10 months ago from A.T. Cross Company and was in Fort Madison with his parents this week to learn about the city and its history as the birthplace of Sheaffer pens.
Ranjan and his parents, Ashvani and Shashi, met with past employees of the Fort Madison Sheaffer facility at the museum in downtown Fort Madison Friday afternoon.
On Thursday, Ashvani and Shashi toured the city with FM Partners' Director Tim Gobble holding conversations with business owners about the city and the impact of the pen company on its history.
Nikhil Ranjan hired a marketing firm to come through the town with the family to make a documentary about the company’s history in Fort Madison.
Ranjan said it’s a priority of the company to preserve the heritage of the Sheaffer family and the history of the company.
“It’s in our interest to keep the museum up and running. We want to keep this a vibrant place,” he said.
“We will start with promoting the museum on social media to make sure the people who are visiting the area will make visiting the museum a priority.
“We’re also going to get products back here for visitors to buy at a discount compared to elsewhere. And then down the road, we’ll look to see if we can do more to make sure the museum is thriving."
Ranjan said after starting William Penn he quickly realized that writing instruments were very popular functionally and as gifts. He reached out to pen brands throughout the world including Sheaffer. Sheaffer didn’t have a distributor in India so he had to buy directly out of the United Kingdom.
“India grew into the largest Sheaffer pen market in the world in 2017-2018. In 2022 we had the opportunity to buy Sheaffer and we couldn’t pass that up,” he said.
In July of 2022 William Penn went to work securing the supply chain following the impact of Covid and upgrading the market. They also started looking at some new products which spawned some new finishes for existing products.
Now their top priorities are to appeal to younger audiences who Ranjan said will see a convergence of digital and analog technologies bringing pens back into functionality.
“Writing in the physical form is not as popular and relevant, but that’s evolving.
“We can’t change the habits, but we want to ride the wave that’s already there. We’re going to be there as young audiences are looking at writing in the future.”
He said there will be worldwide marketing for the pens, including North America. William Penn has a base in Long Island, New York. He said Sheaffer Pen is also a well-known name as a specialty gift item.
Products will be available in retail outlets and online.
The majority of the production is being done in China. Nikhil said they are looking at other places, however production will not be local.
Russell Sheaffer, the son of John Sheaffer and great-grandson of W.A. Sheaffer, the founder of Sheaffer Pens, was also on hand at the museum with his wife Vicki.
Sheaffer said he feels very good that the museum will be taken care of.
“I think it’s in good hands and what’s exciting to me, and the City of Fort Madison should be excited as well, is that they are all in on supporting the museum - keeping it here and keeping it intact,” Sheaffer said.
“William Penn has a huge social media following and they are looking at ways to connect the museum to those platforms, as well.”
Sheaffer said William Penn has been a long-time distributor for Sheaffer Pens and the acquisition makes sense and is strong for his great-grandfather's legacy.