Esterbrook Acquires the John Mitchell Pen Works in Birmingham

In 1947, we acquired the John Mitchell pen-making business and factory in Birmingham, England, strengthening Esterbrook's manufacturing presence in Britain. The acquisition brought together two businesses with connections reaching back to the beginnings of our American operation: Richard Esterbrook had recruited skilled pen makers associated with John Mitchell's Birmingham works when establishing steel-pen manufacturing in the United States. Wikipedia John Mitchell was an important name in Birmingham's historic steel-pen industry. Mitchell had pioneered the mechanised manufacture of steel nibs in the 1820s, helping Birmingham develop into a major international centre for pen production. Esterbrook already had a relationship with the business before the acquisition; when British import restrictions affected American-made pens from 1928, an arrangement with John Mitchell enabled Esterbrook pens to be manufactured in Britain. Wikipedia The Mitchell works had experienced disruption during the Second World War, including bomb damage to its Moland Street factory. Its sale to Esterbrook in 1947 gave us direct control of an established British manufacturing operation and continued a connection between the American company and Birmingham's pen-making industry that stretched back to Esterbrook's origins. Sources differ on aspects of Esterbrook's British corporate chronology—the Esterbrook Project places a related reopening under the Esterbrook Hazel Pens name earlier, in 1944—but multiple histories specifically date the purchase of the John Mitchell business to 1947