Uh Oh, Stillman And Birn Acquired By Clairefontaine Rhodia

[HDoug]

Or maybe not such an uh oh. It's just that for the past several years I've used Stillman and Birn A4 notebooks (designed more for graphic work) to journal and now who knows. Still, it's Clairefontaine and not Scott so maybe I should relax. In my life the best journals I've ever used were Lalo cahiers until they were discontinued. I hope I don't have to hunt around for a replacement for my Stillman and Birn Epsilon notebooks...

http://www.stillmanandbirn.com/blog/?p=3001

 

[bogiesan]

This is from the press piece:

 

Likewise, Stillman & Birn’s corporate culture embraces a tradition of uncompromising quality. It’s a

natural fit for Clairefontaine to add Stillman & Birn to its fine art lines. This acquisition will support a dynamic product development program and a synergy of growth between the three fine art brands, functionally and geographically.

 

My Automatic CorporateSpeak (bleep) Detector fires when I see weasel words like “synergy” and “dynamic product growth” in puff pieces. Such language usually is code for unspeakable cruelty perpetrated agains t employees, the pillaging of retirement accounts, and the crumbling of the dreams of committed old timers.

[Studio97]

Also a user of Stillman & Birn. I've been through similar changes, can be scary for the staff with unpleasantness ahead. I do hope their products dont change for the worse so corporate can save a buck. With other companies I've seen too many items go downhill in quality afterward trying to save money. Maybe I better stock up on old stock.

[milkb0at]

I'd be happy if it meant that Stillman & Birn stuff is easier & cheaper to buy here in the UK, but not if there's a change in the paper.

[JulieParadise]

If you look closer you see that the mill that produces the paper (Schut?) is owned by CF anyway, so, in the end, nothing will change. CF / Rhodia does stand for quality and I am sure especially that company will not devalue the St&B brand.

[Studio97]

If you look closer you see that the mill that produces the paper (Schut?) is owned by CF anyway, so, in the end, nothing will change. CF / Rhodia does stand for quality and I am sure especially that company will not devalue the St&B brand.

I hope you are right, I have favored art supplies which now have moved manufacturing and I'm not happy about the results. Mergers and moving are usually about saving money and "efficiency". One company offered to replace a box of said supplies I was unhappy with. What for? To get more of the same?

Still thinking about stocking up.

[inkstainedruth]

Yeah, "mergers" make me nervous.

My husband ran into that when two chains of "big and tall" mens clothing stores merged. The first one had nothing that fit him right. The second one carried a brand of short sleeve dress shirts that were PERFECT. So one time, after the merger, we went to the second store and they were out of stock so ordered shirts to be delivered to the house. And what we got? The first store's brand.... And that first store had been the cause for him to complain that he wanted to go to a store where you could get big OR tall... (the brand that didn't fit measured only by neck size, not by neck and chest size -- only he has a really large neck size due to years of judo classes and then being on his high school JV wrestling team; so THOSE shirts fit his neck size but the *shoulder* seams hit his biceps...). Needless to say, they got returned with rude comments because that was NOT the brand we thought we had ordered.... Unfortunately the brand he DID like and which DID fit him seems to vanished into the ether. So the last time he needed dress shirts we hired a friend to custom make some, based on a combination of her taking his measurements, giving her a shirt that did fit him pretty well, and and discussion of things like "I'd like it to be a little longer through the torso" -- and after going to a fabric store and special ordering a 25 yard roll of blue chambray....

At least he's got that option. Me? Even high-end department stores now carry women's clothing in "small-medium-large" type of sizing instead of "numbered" sizing. So a "medium" size cardigan might not fit me if it's buttoned -- but a large? I end up with the same problem with the shoulders that he did with those "house brand" dress shirts.... It's cheaper for the manufacturer to have a limited number of sloper patterns, which are then sewn in 3rd world countries. Only they're not PRICED that way.... They're priced as if they're made here in the US with union labor. And some of us can't AFFORD that....

This is why I don't shop for clothes online. If I go to an actual store, I can try something on, see if it fits and is cut right for me -- and if it DOESN'T I don't buy it. Not sure what I'm going to to about shoes in the future, because the brand I bought for years (and only certain styles fit me right at that) stopped having B&M stores. They now only sell selected styles in SOME department stores (usually the ones that don't fit me right) and online. And I'm NOT shoe-shopping online. I can't. The most important thing I ever learned from my mother was "Wear comfortable shoes" (she had a bad foot from a bad localized reaction to chemo drugs and all the bones in her ankle fused; it didn't stop her from traveling all over the world, but she did joke about being Imelda Marcos because sometimes she had to change shoes three times in one day when her foot hurt). She would almost exclusively shop online -- but I won't.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth