Appelboom on Tour: Marco Frei (CEO of Otto Hutt)

hello and welcome to another video of applebone today i'm sitting here with mr marco fry he's the ceo of otto hoot and thank you so much for making the time for me and have a little chat about the rent of the hood and about yourself of course um before we start this interview we always do a pen check first so which pen are you carrying with you today from after from our family thank you for coming here it's a great honor it's a pleasure so it's a nice time we spent with you now the pen jack it's uh with this that's very simple i use a fountain pen all black from ottawa design four i always use an ef nib okay always that's interesting and yes that you have a small handwriting small handwriting and i like to write very fine and as a ball pen i use our design seven which is new before we had that i really didn't use a ball pen uh so much but with this bold piece i i like very much what you you prefer to write with a fountain pen i like to fountain pen and i'll write a lot with our design for mechanical pencil okay that is the mechanical pencil and the fountain pen this i carry all the time and for signatures sometimes you need a ball pen yes that's oh yes of course that's obligated yeah that's too bad but no that's what i use all the time okay that's a great set yeah um last year they celebrated their 100th year anniversary it could have been a better year to celebrate that but yeah what can you do about that tell us a little bit more about the history of otto hood well the hood he started his company in 1920 and it was it was a silversmith it was a family business and they made everything out of sterling silver what today is like a designer product uh yeah and we still do some of these products like toothpicks leather openers this is really a niche this is also toothpicks toothpicks okay yeah made of sterling silver yeah there is uh because when we uh bought this company in 2006 we evaluated with which products we would like to continue but this company was made to serve sterling silver wholesalers worldwide yes and there was a bunch of products we we continued with writing instruments design one and two are from that time design four as well but many things we we don't do anymore like like a device to eliminate champagne bubbles for example which is really very nice really specific but bottle openers or tableware we we don't do that anymore you still produce the writing instruments with the writing instruments yes and the the toothpicks letter openers are still still there okay and yes in 2016 we we had a bigger change in in the company and also in the other hood brand we changed it from um to serve sterling silver wholesalers to make the make it a brand fit for retail business okay yeah so the ottawa brand was really like as we know it right now it started like in 2016 2016 we with i mean we maintained the heritage we maintained some of the products which were successful in the market and still are successful in the market yes that's that's what we did but we did we built around these products a nice set of communication online offline we do a lot of printed materials we make the owns a unique magazine yeah and uh yeah to make really the brand interesting for writing instruments lovers and uh yeah you invested more in branding uh to make it like a real writing instrument brand instead of only for the wholesale right yeah i mean we invested in display material we invested in this communications and we invest constantly in new products as well the area where we are right now forzym is uh really important for the company right can you tell us a little bit more about this specific area in germany okay i mean i made an apprenticeship as a commercial businessman in a jubilee in the jewellery industry and i mean here still the jewelry industry is important there are brands like for example valendorf or or like the flagship brands like chopard which are from here are local manufacturing and all the skills from the writing instruments come from this industry like in the 80s there were like 40 writing instruments manufacturers in fourth time oh wow yeah and in the jewelry association where where we are member how many of those 40 two really two manufacturers are are left but at that time we were it was a bigger group yeah and in 2017 for time celebrated the 250th anniversary of jewelry making where we participated as a member of this jewelry organization and we made a special edition we participated in a trade show in a display it was really a very nice celebration where jose carreras sang and it was it was really a good good display also also for us is there a lot of communication between those uh different branches like the jewelry branch and the writing industry branch within first sign or is it separate from each other within within this jury organization there is a made in germany group where we are part of and they there is a quite a lot of exchange between this this company for uh for any projects we make with a wedding ring uh manufacturer or a partnership for gilosh some tubes for so no there is a good so you're learning from each other it was that is very nice and they start let's say it's a new kickstart for this collaboration was definitely made in 2017. yeah in this factory you're not only producing autohood writing instruments you're also producing for other brands um can you tell us a little bit more about that yeah i mean we work for for many customers i mean the company has 70 employees and this uh with with otto hood we cannot uh provide enough work for everybody but uh traditionally the company is is a like a act as an oem manufacturer a oem producer and we usually the people the customers come here with the design with the designer and we really make the for them the technical design the sourcing and yes to the to to provide a product in the most efficient way and therefore we have really all the possibilities from engineering technical design all the manufacturing steps the parts production polishing electroplating laser engraving the gilosh technique which is a very traditional technique everything is here and things and projects can be realized in a short time yeah so for example like valentino they come to you with an id like okay we want to have this kind of pan and you do the design till the from the production like everything yeah yeah i mean the valentino project was uh really you can see um a long time ago long long time ago and it was really the first approach with a with a bigger brand to work with with designers to get to know the accuracy which has to be applied to to every detail so that they are happy and that we learned a lot with this project it was very challenging because i mean you can see the shape and the machinery at that time was not so sophisticated as as it is today of course so that was a challenge you're the ceo of a family company uh what would you have done if you would not stepped into the company well before i was working for long years in a precious metal refining company maybe i would have stayed there but that was really not the question so since 2016 i direct this company together with my sister and we were really growing up with pence because our father he bought this com production company in 1984 and we were involved from the beginning my sister she was very at a very early stage going into the technical direction and i knew languages at a young age so i give gave my input there so and today i think we are good and very complete team yeah that's really important yeah so as a young child you already had to assemble pants yeah sure i mean if you look at this that was really some some items from a very early stage and yeah it looks like design one but uh it's uh that that was different that was uh yes as a level of that time so that was a very popular uh lakering and gold plating was extremely popular so we assembled pins in in our free time definitely and and after the assembling if you had some other spare time do you also have some other hobbies yes i mean we we both my sister myself we are into swimming a lot yeah yeah and i myself i really i enjoy like photographing also that is my second hobby do you get some inspiration uh from your hobbies like you're you say swimming is that the reason that you have that wave pattern no no definitely just a coincidence that was a different story with the design see we wanted uh yeah um like a pattern which is a little lighter and with a gloss technique and we have made up these three-dimensional cuts which but that is doesn't come from it could have been um you really like designing uh what is besides writings and what would be interesting for you to design as well i mean with the designing we i mean our my first duty when we took over this other hood company we transformed it to a brand is what to defining with which items we should carry on yeah and that was design one design two and design four which i identified as a good mainstream writing instruments we can produce it well but afterwards we had a more we had more confidence and uh we made design five and uh like on our own which is uh like a niche product design five with the touch tip yeah but um for design six and seven for example we relied on uh on a younger designer from the design school here in in fourth time and recently we work with mike brown which is an excellent designer known uh very s very settled and gives a great input and it's great to work with him so i think that is the way we want to go and uh because our expertise is in production and in the communication of the of the brand but the design should be like as well be done by specialists done by the professionals by professionals um you're already talking about design one design two three four five six seven and eight um what's the reason behind that uh uh so you give the designs a number instead of a name isn't there an appropriate name for it or is there i mean when we when we started with the brand or the hood we were thinking about what the brain stands for and one of the element i mean 1920 is definitely the bauhaus era yeah and though we didn't gave the products names which is i know it's very common but we decided to go by numbers okay by numbers and each product is all also numbered here you can see design is designed for so it has a zero four and then an individual number which is different on any so different on any every so you can always find your pen back definitely and uh this is our this is part of the host philosophy as we think about it yeah when you're creating such a beautiful writing instrument which part of the creating process do you spend the most effort in is it the designing the production is it the nip is it the color the material what's what's the most well some sometimes it's a clip but it's uh most difficult and most time consuming is to prepare like the tooling which is necessary to make the laser engraving the tooling for polishing or for the any fixtures and and utilities to later make it make it happen yeah that is very very time consuming but like for example with design 8 we get the input for the outside decoration from mike brown and we really had to spend a lot of time and how do we realize that or it was more extreme at the design c with yeah with a no clip and all straight and the cap not to be removed so to to activate the pump so we had to invent um and mechanism to do that and so this was uh we spent more time on the practical reason to do it than well than the outside decoration yeah so it's different with each and every uh model actually yeah yeah which model is the most underrated uh brand from the collection yeah i think with uh underrate also brand is a little underrated yeah but from i mean you could mention design one which is an excellent writing instrument excellent companion it's not a cheap pen but around 100 euro you get a it's an affordable one it's affordable price you have precious metal involved it's a made in germany pen and i think this is a little underrated or at the other end the um our brand now is really fit at least outside europe to sell uh easily designed seven design uh aid and uh yes maybe this is also a form of underrating we also asked our social media followers for a question for you and a lot of those questions were involving mark brown so can you tell us a little bit more about that collaboration with mark brown the co-operation started in 2018 that's when we first approached him uh for uh yeah if he could uh help us out with a design for our anniversary writing instrument for 2020 because my sister and myself we we like very much his work he worked for the enormous brand and almost watches we like them a lot we like that a lot and we were finding him out as a designer and we called him and he visited our factory as you did today and he was really amazed he was thrilled we it was it was we were on like on the same page and he did that this wonderful design for us it was a great uh collaboration and yeah after the design c we asked him to do a more contemporary writing instrument with a clip but still being very special so he made the design eight for us and at the next project with him is not to develop a writing instrument but furniture two pieces of furniture um a stand alone between and for in the stores for the stores and a system for on the desk or table display also for the stores right so far this stuff so not that people are watching right now thinking oh nice i want to have something like that for for in my home but it's really fast to ask for sales yeah but this is a project with him it's in a good a good stage we made a sample and it's take also taking account our heritage here from the black forest the materials used are like a pine wood and uh with a little unusual display but that's it will be yeah but not very nice a little bit unusual so that's good right so now we we have ongoing uh collaboration with him he is so he will most likely design more bands in the future for auto yeah for the hood but [Music] i mean after these very very specific special writing instruments maybe we're going for something more mainstream in the future but let's but that is not really planned or or there is no no plan to do a design line right now okay that's not not the case for the future it's really for the future after i mean with the having a company anniversary in 2020 was a bit of bad luck it started very well with the paperwork trade show we had very very good response we were planning like a small road show to do with mark brown this could not could not happen yeah so we going still step by step yeah for the 200 year anniversary 210. uh we're now in the new golden era of founder bands writing do you have an explanation for that what do you think how does it come that writing and fountain depends come back like this again i mean when when we started with uh with otto hood really started in 2016 we sold right from the beginning a lot of fountain pens and the explanation for that is that it's really a renaissance like the mechanical watches or really there is on one hand the digital era with mobile phones and other digital communication but on the other hand on a i think on a worldwide basis people go back to fountain pen writing talking about worldwide um i read on the website of your on your website that the netherlands was for one of the first countries that you exported to what other countries export countries are really important for otherhood fatherhood is i mean united states is it's very important and like our neighbor countries okay uh i mean with netherlands it's also that before even before otterhood we had a very good context to sterling silva wholesalers which is important there yeah and so we get a good market entry also um also right right from the beginning turkey is an important market india is going to be also important yeah and of course china is also a good country for us and in general we have like 31 countries we export now to on a regular basis and yeah it's not going badly sort of what other country would you like to add of those you already have 31 countries what other countries do you think like okay this one is missing i want to have right now we i mean we have still we are still a smaller team and what we are looking at how can we help how can we do help our give good input to our distributors to the our partners in in the countries to to be more successful what can we do there also we are looking for that rather than to to to really to get new to you to expand to new markets that is right now our goal and that is also this year successful yeah i really like this question uh if found depends where cars which car brand would you be i mean that i was told many many times now so i mean if if in the car industry orderhood would be clearly audi yeah that is definitely like that there's no discussion that is what the hoot is so they say i mean for many many different countries they told me oh if you if this would be a car brand you would be outing yeah i i never thought about it but i was told like uh so many times so now i also believe i believe consumer demands have changed over the over time for fountain pens uh how did otto hood changed with that demand i mean with the design i mean we we offered like a design for is more straightforward writing we offer fizz design for all four writing systems a fountain pen roller ball ball pen and mechanical pencil meanwhile design six we had the approach of a more lifestyle product with more more colors and that for example there is no mechanical pencil this is meant to more more lifestyle orientated and we still have some sterling silver items and with design seven more bold bolder products so i mean we cover a lot of ground and everybody can find his match yeah let's say is it important for you to have communication with the end consumer with uh i mean with social media that helps a lot even in the past two years where it's more difficult to meet personally we answer all the questions we are open and yeah we yeah we like the um yes the communication feedback from end customers and usually it is really very very pleasant and very good there were people writing us letters even yeah to to to the employees or or to me because they were just happy with the fountain pen they sometimes say it was a longer time since they bought their last fountain pen and they were just happy or yeah it's a beautiful compliment right yeah that is really encouraging us and to to follow the step yeah how do you see the future of the writing industry in general in general i mean if i would note that exactly would be would be great for all of us but uh yeah it's um i mean we have to be more maybe more international as we are today and we still have to look what what the demand is in a different way because although we are exporting to so many countries it's still like our style is still very european let's put it like that and maybe we have to be more open in in that way and [Music] it's really hard to say yeah it's really what is what is that that's why i'm asking you questions because i don't know it um so this is something that you might know uh you had a lot of new designs uh the last years also because of the anniversary uh would you also like to tell something if there's something new coming up a new design for example we hopefully there is in next year's a paper world trade show is happening which is almost important rachel and until there until that yeah end of january 2022 we will think about some new items maybe design for design six um in in that direction until then we just have to write with all the other sure i mean we were introducing as you said a lot of new items for the past two years and i think we should concentrate on visiting the customers showing presenting all the items we did because for the yeah for the reason we know all this was not really possible in the past time so maybe this is what we have to do until then to until we produce new new ideas yeah until there are new products again uh mr fry thank you very much for this wonderful interview i have a small gift for you from the netherlands well there's zero vowels i don't know if you know them but we always send those not like this but smaller ones with our orders so our customers most likely know them so i brought some for you as well thank you we i was also visiting amsterdam a couple of years ago and yes we are eating that and i like this olive oil very much so i look forward to to go there again and i have also a gift for you oh wow so here this is for for your daughter all right so you can have uh yeah his first paint book yeah yeah she loves she loves from germany draw and she loves to write so thank you for that i will give it to her as soon as i'm back um before we are ending this uh interview uh you also have a gift for our viewers right yeah sure let me grab it it's right here it's a this white design for a fountain pen and i mean it comes in the gift box with a converter and with a silver with a cleaning towel and yes this will be i think this will be a good it's a beautiful giveaway um if you would like to win this band because of course we can only give away one of this one and not to all the viewers um comment underneath this video what do you think of the autohood brand also follow ottohoot on instagram and us of course and then in three days after the video we will announce the winner thank you again for the interview thank you for watching and we hope to see you next time and uh yeah if you would like to buy auto hood pen you're more than welcome to visit our store in a lot or in boston of course and well i hope to see you again soon thank you it was a great interview thank you thank you you

2021-08-09 13:51

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