Moleskine

History

In the mid-1990s, co-founder Maria Sebregondi pitched the idea of resurrecting the iconic notebooks to the company Modo & Modo, despite the shelves of stationery stores already being stocked with blank books at the time. As a result, Modo & Modo trademarked the Moleskine brand and began production of 5,000 notebooks, officially reintroducing them in 1997.

By 1998, Modo & Modo were producing 30,000 notebooks a year and expanded their market, distributing their products across Europe. By 2000 Modo & Modo SpA had an office with a small staff and sales of €20M ($26M) in MIlan. In 2004, Moleskine notebooks were exported to in Japan, and from there, distribution to Asia began.

In 2006, the company was purchased by the European private equity firm now known as Syntegra Capital. At that time, it was reported that the company’s small staff was unable to keep up with demand. In August 2006, the French investment fund Société Générale Capital purchased Modo & Modo SpA, and invested in its expansion. The company name changed to Moleskine Srl.

In 2011 Moleskine extend its production to new categories, creating writing, reading, and travelling collections, launched at the Milan Design Week. Most of the objects in these new collections were designed by Italian industrial designer Giulio Iacchetti, and focused more on accessories surrounding reading and writing than paper goods.

By July 2012, Moleskine collections were distributed in 22,000 stores across 95 countries

In March 2013 the company announced an IPO at the Borsa Italiana. Moleskine became a joint-stock company and is now Moleskine SpA.

At the end of September 2016, the Belgian investment group D'Ieteren acquired a 41% stake in Moleskine, a listed Italian company with headquarters in Milan. After having launched a public takeover offer on the remaining shares of the company, D'Ieteren crossed the 95% threshold, which gives it the right to launch a squeeze out procedure in order to gain full control of Moleskine. D'Ieteren's intention is to delist Moleskine from the Milan Stock Exchange.

Notebooks

Moleskine's notebooks are based on notebooks distributed in Paris during the 19th-20th centuries, handmade by small French bookbinders who supplied the local stationery shops around the turn of the 20th century. They are fashioned after author Bruce Chatwin's descriptions of the notebooks he used.

Moleskine items are designed in Italy with most of them being printed, stitched, and assembled in China; this has been criticised by Moleskine community members. Since 2008, some components have been manufactured in Volant, Cahiers and Folio hard covers in Turkey, watercolour paper in France, and some components in Vietnam.

The paper used in Moleskine products is Forest Stewardship Council certified and acid-free. Since August 2010, all Moleskine products, offered to retailers in California and throughout the world, comply with the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. After concerns in 2008 about PVC traces in some notebooks, all items are now PVC-free.

Digital

Moleskine manufactures device covers that emulate the trademarked notebooks.

In August 2012 Moleskine partnered with Evernote to produce a digital-friendly notebook with specially designed pages and stickers for smartphone syncing. In October the same year, Moleskine forayed into print on demand with Photo Books, a collaboration with publisher Milk that lets users upload their own photos into a Moleskine notebook-style album.

Timepage

Timepage is a mobile planner and calendar app developed by Moleskine. It organizes events from calendars on mobile devices and syncs information, contact info, and weather. The app includes a heatmap calendar and timeline, and has included access to Uber services.

Communities

The Moleskine brand is supported by worldwide communities of enthusiasts who write, sketch, paint and draw on Moleskine notebooks. Communities often share images of decorated pages through blogs, social networks or photo and video sharing sites as well as Moleskine's own service "MyMoleskine", through which customers can interact with company staff.