Colored pencils, highlighters, ballpoint pens and watercolors: The new school year is just around the corner, and for many, the Faber-Castell brand is part of it. The company recorded a slight decline in sales of 4.7 percent to 618.4 million euros in the past 2023/24 financial year. The previous year, the second-best sales in the company’s history were generated at 649.2 million euros. Adjusted for currency effects, however, the current decline is only 1.9 percent, and profitability remains in the high single-digit range, according to Faber-Castell, and thus much higher than in the 2019/20 financial year.
Despite a weak economy and geopolitical conflicts, the world’s largest manufacturer of colored pencils and pencils is optimistic about the future: “Globally, we see disproportionate growth opportunities, especially in emerging regions such as Asia and Latin America,” says CEO Stefan Leitz.
More than 250 years old
Faber-Castell was founded in 1761 and is family-owned. The ninth generation of the count’s family is now the main shareholder. The noble family members are represented on the supervisory board of the non-listed stock corporation.
Image: Faber-Castell
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Image: Faber-Castell
The company has been managed by a non-family board since 2017. Faber-Castell’s headquarters are in Stein near Nuremberg.
The traditional German company has been operating a factory in Engelhartszell in the Innviertel region for 60 years. 50 employees produce 43 million highlighters and 250 to 300 tons of ink there every year. Faber-Castell says it employs around 6,500 people worldwide. A total of two billion pencils and colored pencils are manufactured every year in production facilities in ten countries. This means that Faber-Castell generates nine out of ten euros in sales. The majority of the business, 85 percent, comes from private customers.
