This just in: Moleskine Company Up for Sale

A classic Hemingway favourite goes up for sale
Business Telegraph
By Malcolm Moore in Rome

"The Italian maker of a small black notebook once used by Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Ernest Hemingway has put his company up for sale.

The Moleskine, named for its oilcloth cover, gained cult status after its relaunch in 1998 by Mario Beruzzi.

Last year, his company Modo & Modo sold 4.5m notebooks across the world, half of them in the United States. The company, with a staff of 13, had turnover of €12.7m (£9.1m) last year and profits of more than €2m. In the UK its classic notebook sells for upwards of £7.

Mr Beruzzi, 69, said: "Moleskine is growing very quickly and it is becoming too big for us. We do not have the capacity to follow it through." He said KPMG, the accountants, were preparing the company for sale..."

LINK
Related news: "KPMG works on Van Gogh notebooks"
Here's something to sweeten the deal: Moleskine is currently #10 at Lovemarks.

[via Mike Shea]

Photo by MattL on FLICKR
© All rights reserved. Originally posted with permission on Moleskinerie 12.21.04

Also discussed on FLICKR and Moleskinerie/GOOGLEGROUPS.

...

UPDATES:

4.20.06 4.00 P CST
An Official Statement to the Moleskine Community from Modo & Modo

Comments

[Payton Biddington]

Oh no :( Hopefully they will get picked up quickly by someone who keeps the books perfect like they are right now.

[Evan "JabberWokky" E.]

For sale or going public (i.e., selling shares to grow)?

Going public is *technically* selling the company, but it very different in how things are handled. Are we sure this isn't a translation error of a common business practice?

[Ethan]

How about Moleskinerie? Its worth some considerable change:)
http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.moleskinerie.com

[Mike]

I worry that the company will be bought out by the typical large bottom-line company that might decide to lower the quality to increase profits. The Moleskine is known for its excellent quality (though I am having a problem with the back cover ripping away from the end-pages after a couple of months of heavy use) and any change to quality will change the product. We love Moleskines because of what they are right now. If this changes, we may not love them near as much.

I still have my stockpile of about 60 plain pocket Moleskines. I don't know if that will last the rest of my life but it may.

If they do change the quality, it isn't like there is a lack of good quality journals. It might even be the excuse to go for a Levenger Infinity Journal:

http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=Category=322-325|PageID=176|Level=2-3

I don't think, in this day in age, we're bound to run out of good journals within which to write our prose. I do love Moleskines however, and any change to the future concerns me.

[Shanon]

I really, really hope nothing changes! I have the sudden urge to run out and buy a ton of Moleskines now, just to be (a little) safe.

[Loretta]

Let's think big - if we pooled our money, say contributing as much as we would spend on Moleskines in our lifetimes, the readers of moleskinerie could own the company! Imagine the possibilities: total quality control, selected the retail outlets, designing the displays, designing new notebooks! I see a line in the beautiful Van Gogh colors, in the large sketch size, with watercolor paper.

Armand, set up a button in your sidebar "The Fund to Buy Modo".

;>)

Loretta

[Drew]

That sucks, but hopefully the new owners will bring about some GOOD changes; not ruining the line.

I'm still going to buy a bunch anyway though!

[Tony]

I agree with Loretta, they're growing so let's buy them.

[Antonio]

What do you guys think the value of Modo is? Yeah, let's buy it..