About Us


Studio Pens is the authorised UK distributor for Kaweco, Esterbrook and Schmidt Technology.  We are a small father and daughter business.  Ian has a background in manufacturing and has been in the pen business for many years.  Nikki's background is in marketing.  

Ian became involved in the pen world quite late in his career, as the result of a chance meeting in 1999 with George Kartsotis, the founder of US pen brand Retro 51. Over the ensuing years, Ian served his apprenticeship in the writing equipment business, becoming a distributor for Schmidt Technology along the way.

In 2009, Ian met Michael Gutberlet of Kaweco at Paperworld and subsequently became their UK distributor. The business flourished. Nikki, his eldest daughter, joined Ian in 2015, fulfilling a lifelong ambition of Ian's to build a family business.

Studio Pens has continued to show year on year growth, and in 2017 we moved out of The Studio in Ian's garden in Surrey up to a small business unit in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. Ian handed over the goods in and shipping to Nikki, to be able to focus soley on overseeing the business. 

By early 2020 we were bursting at the seams again, so in February 2020 we bit the bullet and took on a much larger industrial unit at Follifoot Ridge. That summer, we took on the US household pen brand, Esterbrook.

We are passionate about our brands, and we would be very happy to tell you about them in detail if you would like to get in touch!

Ian and Nikki

Studio Pens Limited is registered in England & Wales. Our company number is 05552258
Our VAT number is 875 8609 66