Delta Out Of Business?

[Ink_Chick]

Greetings ~

Was reading November posts in the Fountain & Dip Pens - First Stop forum about Delta and questions about whether they went out of business. Since they are an Italian company, I thought perhaps someone here might know.

 

Thank you in advance!

[Jerome Tarshis]

Yes.

 

The search engine of your choice can put you in touch with details.

[Stylo_dOr]

Yes.

 

The search engine of your choice can put you in touch with details.

 

I'm a little vague on the details that happened with Delta. They were such an excellent pen manufacturer. I own dozens of their pens -- and all of them excellent pens that I continue to cherish to this day. Frankly, there really wasn't much information available on the internet with respect to what actually happened to Delta. All that I know is that Delta went under sometime between 2016 and 2017. One of their primary distributors, MarteModena, purchased (or acquired) some of the equipment that Delta used to manufacture their pen. That's all that I currently know. Is there anything more that you aware of?

Edited June 6, 2018 by Stylo_dOr

[Weaveras]

I concur - what happened with Delta (and OMAS) is not readily available, at least on English speaking sites that I searched.

[jekostas]

Delta continued to turn pens by hand when it was no longer economically feasible to do so. The doors officially closed in August of 2017

[dapprman]

One of the three founders of Delta was/is making the ASC 'OMAS' pens and now has started up a new company - Leonardo Officina Italiana.

PenultimateDave (formerly Visconti Dave) has a review of two of the initial limited releases on his YouTube channel:

Here

Here

[fabri00]

Officina italiana are also turned by hand...

[Karmachanic]

Officina italiana are also turned by hand...

 

Beautiful. If it weren't for the stepdown ......... I tend to hold away from the nib.

[jekostas]

Officina italiana are also turned by hand...

 

Officiana pens sell for prices where it's feasible to do so. Delta pens weren't (or couldn't be) sold at such prices

Edited June 15, 2018 by jekostas

[fabri00]

Well, the acrylic one cost here about 130 euro, which is cheaper than the price of similar Delta.

[jekostas]

The cheapest Deltas sold for significantly less money.

 

You also cannot compare the prices of currently produced items with those that are no longer being produced. That latter group are subject to significantly different market forces which greatly affect pricing.

[AidenMark]

In case you are interested the is a video showing the Officina Italiana workshop.

 

[Bill P]

Thank-you for posting the video...very interesting.

 

Bill P.

[dms525]

Thanks for posting this video. I was unaware of this youtube channel. I am now subscribed.

 

Do you know his name?

 

David

[clear1]

One of the three founders of Delta was/is making the ASC 'OMAS' pens and now has started up a new company - Leonardo Officina Italiana.

 

I love this company. I already own 3 of their pens.

 

I thought he worked as a designer at Delta. Was he even a co-founder? Wow, I didn't know that!

[dms525]

 

I love this company. I already own 3 of their pens.

 

I thought he worked as a designer at Delta. Was he even a co-founder? Wow, I didn't know that!

The CEO of Leonardo Officina Italiana is Salvatore Matrone. His father, who is also involved with this company, was one of the founders of Delta, according to the youtube video.

[clear1]

The CEO of Leonardo Officina Italiana is Salvatore Matrone. His father, who is also involved with this company, was one of the founders of Delta, according to the youtube video.

 

I see! Thank you!

[Freddy]

Thank you for the video.

Fred

[aardvarkbark]

Thanks for the above video, AidenMark. I am intrigued by the video maker's comment that Leonardo acquired the remaining stock of OMAS' celluloids since it had been widely reported that Emmanuel 'Manu' Caltagirone acquired the remaining stock out of liquidation and formed Armando Simoni Club (ASC) last year and began producing pens with the arco material (plus roller clips and greek key banding common to OMASes).

 

dapprman (based on a comment in the PenultimateDave's youtube review of a Leonardo resin pen) says that the father/son founders of Leonardo had been making pens for ASC. So, did they buy all or part of Manu's remaining stock of OMAS celluloid? Will there now be two companies offering pens made with these celluloids? And who is now turning the pens over at ASC (had Manu hired other pen turners who had previously been with OMAS and/or Delta)?

 

Then there's Scrittura Bolognese ('Scripto') which was recently started by some folks who had been with OMAS, but who apparently did not acquire any of their materials.

 

I've only seen ASC pens on the internet and they appear to be round. I wonder if they or Leonardo will reproduce the 12-faceted paragon and milord body styles; I find those very comfortable to hold. I also favor the chubbier stantuffo Delta model, so will be eager to see if, since the Leonardo founders came from Delta, they may be re-creating that design.

 

Bryant at Chatterley used to get Delta to produce limited runs using some limited remaining stock of their material. I wonder if he will now do the same with Salvatore and his dad at Leonardo. Sans that goofy fusion nib thing.

[dapprman]

My understanding is that:

• Manu bought up the remaining pen stock in the factory and sells them through his eBay store.
• Manu bought up all the ARCO rods, I'm not aware of any others he also bought.
• A number of pen supplies specialists bought up the remaining (non-ARCO) rod stock.
• A number of the final OMAS staff started ScriBo - the nibs they use are very similar - I have the Write Here with the Extra * Flexible nib and it's nigh on identical (in both good and bad) to the OMAS Extra Flessibile, aside from the pattern on it. It is possible they retain some of the old dyes and machines.
• Leonardo Officina Italiana make the ARCO pens for ASC and so 'may' hold the remaining ARCO stock on their behalf.

Edited June 17, 2018 by dapprman