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BEYOND BASIC BLACK

IN 2002, PARKER INTRODUCEDits gel ink ballpoint refill inblack and blue, followed byred, purple, green, turquoiseand light blue a few monthslater. The more adventurouscolors were discontinued,however, as Parker returnedto the basics. While this hasnot made color conscious con-sumers happy, it’s hardly fairto blame Parker.

The problem is that, whilemost good pen shops stockmulti-hued selections of refills,the majority of big box officesuppliers (as in Staples, OfficeDepot and OfficeMax) andgeneral merchandise marts(as in Wal), where most peo-ple shop, don’t. As big as theirboxes may be, these retailerssimply can’t afford to devotesufficient space to displayingmore than a relatively small

sampling of common black orblue refills, and some haveeven begun limiting them-selves solely to black.Profitability depends on masssales, and it’s usually themost basic common-denomi-nator refills that can be count-ed on to sell en masse in themainstream marketplace.

Which brings us to YairGreenberg’s enterprisingefforts to develop, manufac-ture and distribute the kindsof pen refills that people real-ly want but are unable tobuy—mainly because theydon’t yet exist. As presidentof Yafa—the California-basedmanufacturer of its own inex-pensive Yafa and mid-rangeMonteverde pens and distrib-utor of Delta’s upscale instru-ments, among others—Greenberg possesses a wide-

angle perspective and has hisfinger on the pulse of hand-writers everywhere. If itworks, his approach to devel-oping and marketing refillspromises to increase penusers’ awareness of—andaccess to—the kind of inkproducts that capture theirfancy and answer their needs.

For instance, inMonteverde’s Artista line,rollers and fineliners comewith refills in six different col-ors, while the fountain pen isaccompanied by ink cartridgesin a variety of shades. Andthese aren’t run-of-the-millcolors but bright green,orange, turquoise blue, brickred, pink and purple. What’ssignificant is that the refillsadopt a universal roller/finelin-er format, and the cartridgesare standard European format,

Monteverde permanent inkfineliners in six colors.

from top—pink, green, violet,turquoise, brick red, orange.

One company takes up the challenge of providing pen loverswith exactly the inks they want.

• Monteverde low-viscosity Parker-format ballpoint refills—smoother andless pasty than typical ballpoint ink; avail-able in black, blue and blue-black in medi-um and super-broad points with additionalcolors and fine points coming soon.

• Yafa gel ink Montblanc-formatrollerball refill—black or blue in finepoint with more colors to come.

• Monteverde fineliner refill—promisesto do for the fibertip pen what themaker’s Mega Ink-Ball did for the roller-ball; premiered in six colors.

• Monteverde brush refill—possibly themost intriguing of the batch, it looks like amedium-point fibertip but acts like abrush; available in permanent black foruse in standard rollerball holders.

—Barry Robinson

Author Barry Robinson tested a few of the items that are farthestalong in the production pipeline, among them:

continued on page 3

Written by Barry Robinson; photography by Carole Wilmot.Robinson is a Washington, DC, writer and media maven whosedesk and shelves runneth over with pens that he would love to useregularly if only there were gel or wet-ink refills available for them.

which means that they willfit many pens.

This is true, too, ofMonteverde’s breakthroughfineliner refill in fine andextra-fine with permanentblack ink. Pens with thistype of ink are frequentlyused for signing what maybecome historic documentsbut have until now beenavailable only as disposablepens—the kind that areindispensable to ball-sign-ing major leaguers andauthors on book tours.Monteverde’s permanentink refills will fit into anypen that accommodates astandard rollerball refill,such as a Schmidt refill. Todemonstrate the perma-nence of his refill,Greenberg wrote my initialson the water bottle I wascarrying when we met lastsummer. Despite repeatedwashings, my initials arestill on the bottle.

Although 90 percent ormore of ballpoint pensmade today accommodateParker-format gel orSchmidt-format wet-inkrefills, there are still mil-lions of ballpoints androllerballs being manufac-tured—many by major pen-makers—that accept onlyrefills unique to theirbrand. Montblanc, forinstance, boldly reinventedthe fineliner, but has not

yet seen fit to make a gelor wet-ink refill availablefor its ballpoints. By thetime this is published,Yafa’s Montblanc-format gelballpoint refill will be avail-able in black, blue andblue-black with mediumand fine points (not only isthe type of refill a first, butthe use of blue-black ink isquite rare in refills of anykind). I tested this refill,which is everything I’vealways wanted a Montblancballpoint to be.

Think of any majorpenmaker with a non-uni-versal refill—chances arethat Greenberg is alreadythinking about developinga new refill to fit its pens.

In the end, what willmost likely determine thesuccess of Greenberg’sentrepreneurial experimentis the depth of the inroadshe is able to make into themass market. Like anybusiness entity, he’ll needto be able to stay in thegame long enough to reachthe critical breakpoint andmake a profit. While livingon specialty shop salesalone may be possible andeven profitable, a businesscan boom if it can expandbeyond those limits. Sostay tuned.

For more, telephone800.YAFA.PEN or visityafa.com.

Monteverde rollerball refills in six colors

3 Reproduced with permission from Pen World, Volume 20, No. 3. © 2007, World Publications, Inc.