Everyone Moves to Italy

[mso489]

Can some of you pipe manufacturing insiders shed a little light for the rest of us pipe lovers

living in the dark as to why Italy is the go-to place for relocating pipe factories and shops?

Stanwell moved their manufacturing there; Wessex is now in Italy; Comoy the long-time London

pipe making concern is now there, and so on. Obviously there is expertise available, but are

there tax, labor cost, tariff/duty, or other considerations that give Italy such a strong attraction

for pipe makers from other countries?

 

[pipestud]

Lots of history in Italy regarding pipe making, and lots of workers in that particular field compared to other countries. Lots of briar already there which greatly reduces shipping costs to other countries. Briar is heavy and larger manufacturers import tons (literally) to their own countries.
Just a few guesses from me.
Pipestud

 

[gray4lines]

I want to move to Italy.
Maybe not, but I love Italian pipes!

 

[saint007]

I would also think that with labor cost much cheaper in Italy, that it could be a factor.

 

[peter70]

I think, it all comes together. There is briar availability, the expertise for volume pipe production (remember Rossi, the once world's largest pipe manufacturer) and low labor costs, as unemplyoment is unfortunately high.

As much I like Italian pipes, and I have a number of them, I believe, that every country with a pipe history has their own specialities, and they cannot be fully replicated in another country.

 

[misterlowercase]

Everyone is on target I think about the briar supply and labor market.
I'm not an insider or anything, but I did look into the Stanwell situation.
The old Stanwell factory was arguably the most efficient pipe operation in the world.

more photos here:

http://www.tecon-gmbh.de/info_pages.php?pages_id=55
When Scandinavian Tobacco Company decided to move the production to Italy, there was an auction at the Borup factory --

many pipemakers from all around picked up some good equipment...

http://www.svenskapipklubben.se/en/?p=539
Stanwell are now produced in the Tuscany region of Italy at Livorno, made by Barontini (I think?).
Here's a video tour of the new Stanny production in Italy,

http://vimeo.com/36133082

:

:
I wrote directly to Stanwell with some questions almost 2 years ago, the HQ is still in Borup, I got a prompt reply and this was the answer to one of my questions...

The continued drop in sales of pipes in Denmark and on Stanwell’s many export markets made it difficult to maintain a cost-efficient production at the Stanwell factory. The number of pipes sold annually had thus since 1995 dropped from 126,000 to 65,000 in 2008.

 

[lestrout]

Does Italy impose extra taxes or restrictions on the export of briar, the way Turkey does with raw meerschaum? A lot of undeveloped countries are trying to move up the manufacturing value chain.
hp

les

 

[puffy]

I don't know wheather or not it's true.Maybe someone here does.I've heard though that those who make pipes in Italy get first pick of Italian briar before any is exported out of the country.

 

[saint007]

Interesting photos lowercase. I had no idea they made thier pipes from a template.
These are two of my older Stanwells. On the bottom is my fishing pipe, a Scandia by Stanwell Army bent egg. The receiver for the stem is a brass bullet casing, I think 50mm. The one on top is a Danish Star 62. Both great smoking pipes.

 

[mso489]

A Dunhill made in Korea? I'm not sure where we're going with this, but business is business. Lots

of good ideas here. The briar supply was one I hadn't thought of. Keeping the headquarters in the

home country seems somewhat wistful. "The way we were ...." The decline in pipes sales by half

is an eye-opener. I knew that was true, but to see it quantified stopped me cold.

 

[zack24]

Interesting difference between the old operation and the newer one- looks like they were using a modern multiple station duplicator- maybe CNC, can't really tell (that's the picture with the pneumatic fixtures- for most of the shaping except the initial bowl shape- does most of the shaping in one operation. The video of the Italian production is showing the more typical frasing machines used since the early 1900's that you see at a lot of pipe manufacturers- uses 8 or 10 machines with rotary cutters to do the shaping on each individual pipe- Lot more steps in the operation...

 

[zack24]

I don't know wheather or not it's true.Maybe someone here does.I've heard though that those who make pipes in Italy get first pick of Italian briar before any is exported out of the country.

Greta and I visited my 3rd generation briar supplier in Calabria, Italy this fall- spent the evening with them, took the family to dinner, had a great time. The quality of my briar improved greatly after that trip....(It doesn't hurt that Greta is fluent in Italian because the owner's English is as bad as my Italian.)
The Italian government doesn't control where the briar goes- Currently, most of his best briar goes to the Russians or the Japanese and never sees the US market....
We stood on the 4th floor of his home/shop/ factory and he pointed at a half dozen large buildings and homes in the little town owned by his mother, his father, his uncles, and brothers and sister...all paid for with pipes produced by the family over the past few decades...They still do some limited pipe production, but most of the money comes from selling briar to pipe makers...

 

[peter70]

Interesting video of the new Stanwell production. Explains the inconsistent quality I have seen on recent Stanwell pipes. As more manual work is involved, it seems to depend on the individual worker, how good the pipe turns out.
The Danish production turned out pipes of a shape,that were completely identical in measurements. I have now seen 2 No. 11 from Italy, which were different in the width and height, and I was wondering, how this can be.