Linc Pen looks at selling minority stake to Mitsubishi Pencil

The Kolkata-based Linc Pen & Plastics is considering selling a minority stake to the Mitsubishi Pencil Company based in Japan. Taking cue from the recent sell out of stake in stationery major Camlin to the Japan-based Kokuyo, stationery companies may offload stake to technology-driven Japanese companies.

“Today we are open to selling a minority stake of less than 15 per cent in our company to Mitsubishi as long as it can add value to the company and help it grow. Looking at what Camlin has done, such deals can trigger more interest from Japanese companies,” Mr Deepak Jalan, Managing Director, Linc Pen & Plastics.

The Rs 250-crore Linc Pen has had a distribution arrangement with Mitsubishi Pencils for its Uniball brand since 1992. It is now hoping to change the relationship by having minority equity participation from the Japanese company which could also lead to technology sharing between the two partners. “The Uniball brand from Mitsubishi contributes nearly 15 per cent of Linc's turnover and we have recently roped in Katrina Kaif as the new brand ambassador for the premium brand,” added Mr Jalan.

Stepping up its brand building efforts on Uniball and Linc, the company has earmarked a Rs 10-crore advertisement budgetwith endorsers such as Shah Rukh Khan (for Linc) and now Katrina Kaif for Uniball.

Meanwhile, with intentions of driving more margins in the writing instruments category with higher price points, Linc is now launching its own brand of pens under the “Cruiser” brand pegged between Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,000. It has also entered into a distribution arrangement with Lamy Pens based in Germany to bring in its high-end range of pens pegged between Rs 500 and Rs 20,000.

Besides, Linc has also ventured into school stationery products such as geometry boxes, rulers, sharpeners, erasers and wooden pencils recently.

However, considering stationery and writing instruments continuing to be a low margin business, Linc has now decided to enter movie production by setting up a production studio under the banner Linc Entertainment. Mr Jalan, adds: “While making films is altogether different from producing pens, the marketing and distribution is very similar. The knowledge and experience of marketing and distributing pens came in handy while chalking out the plans of marketing of the production house.” Its first film, Shakal Pe Mat Ja is due for release this September.

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