Introduction: Since assuming the Group CEO reins at Schwan-STABILO in October 2025, Michele Molon has been implementing a strategy designed to rejuvenate the 170-year-old company’s fortunes across its three product sectors – writing instruments, outdoor and B2B cosmetics.
For the writing instruments business – the famed STABILO brand, renowned globally for its colourful highlighters – travel retail beckons as a key strategic channel not only to grow sales but to showcase colour and creativity in equal measure.
That allure is being underlined – perhaps we should say highlighted – by STABILO’s much-anticipated debut at TFWA World Exhibition (27 September to 1 October) in coming days. Click here for our separate story on the company’s presence there.
On the eve of the show, The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie spoke with Molon about the group’s aspirations in the channel, its rich heritage and his ambitions to reposition STABILO from a product-centric to brand-centric company by emphasising design, colour, and emotional connection.
It’s just under a year since Michele Molon joined Schwan-STABILO following a stellar 15-year career at Austrian crystal house Swarovski and he is clearly relishing the challenge.
Under a strategic development plan dubbed ‘FORWARD 2030’, the Verona-born Italian executive aims to unlock the group’s full potential by bringing fresh ideas to life, entering new markets, developing alternative products and business models, and making critical investment choices.
“From the group perspective, we want to give every brand within the portfolio a mission to accomplish – ideally in the next five years,” he tells The Moodie Davitt Report during a wide-ranging and intellectually stimulating hour-long Zoom conversation.
A brand man through and through, the CEO found STABILO, the group’s famed writing instruments brandhouse, particularly intriguing, identifying almost immediately a strong opportunity in travel retail.
“I speak not just as an observer but as someone who was taking more than 90 flights a year,” he observes. “Therefore, I knew travel retail both as a leader of a commercial organisation but also as a traveller myself – not just airports but railway stations, Hainan [offshore duty free] and all such areas where you have got duty-free and duty-paid retail.”
As he delved deeper into STABILO’s DNA, Molon perceived a fantastic entity but one overly focused on the product itself rather than the powerful brand that such a globally renowned writing instruments range actually constituted.
“STABILO is super classical in the stationery business but they mostly started from the product perspective,” he explains. The brand was a secondary rather than primary asset, a sharp contrast to his experience at Swarovski, an out and out brand proposition around which products are created.
Molon sees travel retail as an ideal channel to implement the transition to a brand-led identity. “Travel retail is not just a place where you do business, it’s also a place where people are spending their time looking around and scouting – often not to buy, to be honest,” he notes. “The majority of the people are browsing.”
That thought shaped how Molon saw the travel retail opportunity. “In terms of the repositioning of STABILO, everyone might think because of my past profile that I would start from retail and that I would opt for a classical offline store in a High Street. But I took the decision to start from the traveller – because there I can talk to millions of people about who we are, who we want to be and how we really want to address them.”
“Of course, I also have the commercial side in mind but my number one goal is to bring out the essence of STABILO to customers in a positive way. So, those who are into design and colours will start to link our concepts more to the brand and not just to one single product.”
Molon’s approach is about listening, learning and then implementing. He uses the term ‘observe’ frequently, reflecting his views that brands must listen to rather than dictate to their consumers, something he believes has driven a certain degree of arrogance among some luxury sector players.
“I’m a big believer that you observe first what is happening in terms of culture and new trends,” Molon continues. “We then have the ability to create accordingly. One thing that is extremely positive about our journey is that we are totally vertically integrated and produce everything ourselves. So we can react quickly to an opportunity or a trend that the markets really want.”
“This interconnection and heterogeneity that you have in travel retail in terms of genders, age, countries, cultures and behaviours is really visible. However, I think the danger over the last years is that travel retailers and landlords are at risk of being too standardised. For people who are moving across the world, you start to find a little of the same-same everywhere, no?
“I prefer when the airport is investing in art, in exhibitions, so that they are trying to create something emotionally moving. So my idea – and I dream super high without any limit – is that a company like STABILO can cooperate not just with consumers but also with the landlords and different retailers. Because we have the ability to decorate, to bring colour and creativity.
“This, I think, is something so unique that if it’s well played, customers will just enjoy being in that space. So it’s not just the commercial side, it’s also the experience piece that from my point of view is the real winner in the future.”
What then drew an avowed brand man such as Molon to a contrasting proposition in Schwan-STABILO? “It was very hard to leave Swarovski because I’d been there for 15 years very successfully,” he admits. “It was an amazing journey. But when I started to get in touch with this group, what I loved about it was first the variety – going from cosmetics, Outdoor to writing instruments, which was my old passion with Montblanc [where he spent a decade from 2000] and then the whole outdoor piece.
“I saw untapped opportunities across the different businesses, and STABILO was very much one of the key drivers. I’d constantly been in touch with STABILO as a consumer and I always thought this was such a brand they could do more with.”
So much so that when he permitted himself to “dream big of owning a company myself” in the past, STABILO was one of his five hypothetical choices.
“So it was like something was driving me here. Of course, it was a very rational decision to accept and I was delighted by the fact they chose me. But on the other hand, it was also an emotional decision that was really connected to this group.”
When Molon took on the CEO role, he said the group was built on a culture of 3 ‘c’s – care, courage and creativity. “The world around us is not waiting and neither should we,” he wrote shortly afterwards.
“Constant evolution is the only way forward. So my priority will be to strengthen our innovation capabilities and translate great ideation into tangible, profitable results, but of course quickly and decisively.”
That’s an emphatic vision to outline so early, I suggest. How is he going to deliver it? “It’s a very bold statement and I try to live up to the expectations with the team,” he replies. “Of course, and here I am talking about STABILO specifically, the company has a very nice culture as an employer.
“There’s a very strong culture of caring, of unity, and of taking care of the people beyond what they do at the job. So it’s really about people. It’s about generations. There are people who have been working in the company for more than 30 or 40 years. Some even pass the baton to their kids. That’s a really beautiful element.
“The part where there’s a need for an evolution – not really a transformation – is that the world around us is really dynamic. You cannot just observe, do what you know and you have always been used to doing. So even in terms of the innovation pipeline, the STABILO BOSS that you have in your hand is a product of more than 50 years [it was created in 1971]. And it’s incredible that after those years, still every minute five products are sold in in the world.
“But what is next? It doesn’t have to be a highlighter. It could be something else. It could be something outside classical writing. So when I started this journey, my point to the team was you need to bring back the curiosity, the exploration that was the essence of what made STABILO so successful.
Until the arrival of our highlighters, people would say ‘underlining’, right? And STABILO somehow came to ‘own’ the [semantic] property of the word highlight.
“What for me is incredible is that the term ‘highlighting’ gets translated across so many languages. It’s not just the concept of highlighting – STABILO created a cultural movement.”
“Because if you take the STABILO BOSS itself from, say, a design perspective, it is not the most comfortable product ever. It’s very edgy. It’s not rounded. But once you use it, you will never stop. You will never use something else because the colour is very specific. The weight is very balanced. The design per se is super recognisable.
“All this is about innovation and design. That’s what I want to bring back into the company. It’s not just the P&L piece, which I’m pretty strong at, but the key part is really to say that we are by definition and by default a design company.”
Not digital vs physical but digital + physical
So to the obvious yet must-ask question. In terms of the internet, social and digital media and AI, we are living in an age that represents arguably the biggest communications revolution since the introduction of the printing press (also invented by a German – Johannes Gutenberg – around 1439). How does a traditional writing instruments brand such as STABILO adapt to the digital age and remain relevant?
It’s a question Molon is well-prepared for – and likely one he asked himself before accepting the CEO role. “I think there are two disruptions that are happening at the same time,” he responds. “One is digitalisation, which has already been with us now for more than 20 years. But the real challenge from my perspective is more about the new generations.
“Previous generations have been using digitisation to do things in a smart way through a hybrid rather than a pure digital approach. But the new generations are born just into digital and are educated in digital.”
Consequently many young consumers lack rudimentary handwriting skills, Molon says. But there, lies opportunity for STABILO, not wasteland. How so?
“By definition, writing creates self-attention,” he points out. “The writer must focus on what he or she is doing. So I really think there are two aspects that we can win with as a company.
“One is teaching people to take time for themselves. Writing, highlighting, colouring and drawing represents a time you’re reserving for yourself. I believe this is the most precious element we have in our life. That’s one part that has to come across much stronger – take your time, take some minutes for yourself, and go manual.
“Then there’s another element, which is about education,” he adds, explaining this is an area of strength for STABILO, especially in Europe and in China. “We start with primary school in helping people with any type of difficulties they may have with writing. We support them with specific products to develop and not to feel different. And we enable them to write in a different way.”
Whether it’s a Montblanc Meisterstück or a STABILO Boss, writing instruments share one critical element in common, Molon points out. “They express who you are. As I was always saying when I was at Montblanc and I’m repeating it at STABILO, a pen is an extension of yourself.” Which, by implication, a tablet never will be.
Molon picks up on an email I sent him when we first exchanged messages. “You said you liked to tell stories,” he recalls. “This was very much music to my ears because STABILO essentially invented a verb in English. Until the arrival of our highlighters, people would say ‘underlining’, right? And STABILO somehow came to ‘own’ the [semantic] property of the word highlight.
“What for me is incredible is that the term ‘highlighting’ gets translated across so many languages. It’s not just the concept of highlighting – STABILO created a cultural movement. That’s what I want to bring back to the centre of the company and what I think will defend us from digital disruption.
“Of course, there will be challenges to writing and stationery products. But I see on the other hand the opportunity to really bring the cultural movement back to the centre. For example, I love Kindle and all these types of things, but the feeling of having a book in your hands is something special.”
Slow down you move too fast
Molon refers to the “slow movement”, the result of people globally reassessing the pace of life, especially in the post-COVID years. “For example, when you observe how China rapidly changed from being a totally hectic society into one where more and more people moved into the outdoor segment, it was because they were realising while they might need to go fast, it should not be too fast.
“You’re a grandfather, Martin. Let’s say you go to see your grandkids [in the UK], and you take them a special edition of some colouring book, which is all about Hong Kong where you live. You are bringing something to them that you can do together. Colouring a booklet together, which is dedicated to Hong Kong, and maybe you can only buy it at Hong Kong Airport.
“That’s the sort of thing STABILO can do easily and would benefit us as a brand and also the airport itself. This is just an example, but it’s an example of the newness we can bring to travel retail. It’s not just the what, we are also pretty strong in creating the how. From my perspective, that’s going to be a strong combination.”
Discovering a remarkable DNA
By any family company standards – many of which by common assent go wrong in the third generation, prompting the old adage ‘shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations’ – to reach six generations is extraordinarily impressive. What does Molon believe is the essence, the DNA, that has enabled the company’s remarkable longevity?
“When I met the family behind Schwan-STABILO, what was really incredible as a first impression was that they are very humble in the way they approach the business. They don’t want to be in the front line and they are very disciplined. And when I say disciplined, it is because they have this long-term view as a horizon.
“It’s not all about the profit here and now. It’s all about what they are building for the next generation. This is not just a value for the family; it is a strong value for the group itself.
“Of course, when you prepare a strategy, you review your business plans and you want to deliver on the here and now as well. But what you are building is more important than what you’re achieving right now.
“This is also what made the family so strong and able to move into the next generation. This discipline is what is protecting and nurturing them and making them able to step by step into the next generation. And before that, the next generation is getting prepared to take over.”
Highlight What Matters
As a commercially, strategically and intellectually fascinating interview draws to a close, we return the discussion to travel retail, a channel Molon knows very well from Swarovski’s formidable presence within it.
I put it to him that STABILO’s first serious foray into the sector (the brand is in some airport travel essentials stores) is optimally timed in that just about every travel retailer and airport on the planet is striving to differentiate themselves from their competitors, through a combination of personalisation (and personality), localisation and exclusives.
STABILO, it is clear, can play to those dynamics. As noted in part two of this article, the brand is debuting at Cannes with an intriguingly holistic brief under the (beautifully coloured) ‘Highlight What Matters’ banner (pictured below).
“Highlight What Matters came to my mind when I started to draft a new strategy, so I’m a little biased on this subject because it was crafted by me,” Molon says, expressing his pleasure at the multi-layered meanings the mantra is designed to convey.
“What matters can be something that you’re reading or doing, something that is happening or happened to you, or something where you just want to express yourself.
“I’m a strong believer that colour is a tool for self-expression. And colour is something that STABILO owns, especially the vivid colours and the fluid colours – the purple, the pink and so on.
“We did extensive consumer research before finalising our strategy. And what came out was that consumers associated STABILO strongly with the colour, then with the quality and the third element was with the design.
“So in Cannes we are not proposing a specific product, and we are not proposing a specific region [to focus on]. Instead we are going to propose our storytelling. And here lies the opportunity. I believe that we can win if we propose ourselves as a platform, as a platform for a retailer or an airport to make use of this newness that is coming to the travel retail channel.”
Molon will be in Cannes but his presence will be one with a difference. “I will meet anyone,” he vows, “because I really want to co-create something and that’s the difference. I’m not there to sell, I’m co-creating and this is where I believe there is a big chance to become relevant in the channel.”
Molon is both flexible and curious in his thinking about how STABILO can partner with travel retailers around the concept of colour. He cites a recent collaboration with American company Pantone, famed for its proprietary colour-naming system of the same name, in which the two companies jointly launched a STABILO Boss Original x Pantone Deskset of 30 highlighters featuring an exclusive, colour-forward design.
“This was pretty crazy and very successful as a first result. So imagine something like this in every airport, which becomes a collectable where getting a full collection is fun.” And sustainable. Molon points out to me a fact many people don’t know (including myself, to my shame, as a long-time STABILO user) all the company’s highlighters are rechargeable.
“So they are not something you are going to throw away. You just buy the ink and you basically recharge the highlighter as you would refill a fountain pen. That’s beautiful and unique.”
Heading to the great outdoors
While the group’s primary focus will be STABILO at TFWA World Exhibition, Molon sees plenty of opportunity in the company’s outerwear division for travel retail. For the Cannes show, a curated Deuter backpack assortment will also be presented. The brand, acquired by Schwan-STABILO in 2006, sits alongside sister labels Ortovox, Maier Sports and Gonso in the specialist division.
“If STABILO is all about the essence of expressing creativity, the outdoor part –especially Deuter – is super strong in everything around packing. And packing automatically translates into travel.”
In short, travel retail is again a no-brainer. As a result, the existing Deuter (especially) and Ortovox travel collections are being reworked into accessory-driven, easily accessible ranges tailored specifically to travel retail stores.
Our time is up and we agree to continue what has been an invigorating conversation at the Cannes show. But before we break, I ask Molon if he has one concluding message to the travel retail community before the event? After all, it is pretty certain that every retailer he and his team meet will know of STABILO, the product, but likely not the brand nor the heritage behind it.
“My overarching message would be to innovate travel retail together in the sense that I saw 15 or 20 years ago when travel retail was all about experimenting and, from my point of view, was one of the most dynamic shopping channels in the world,” he replies.
“It was similar to what is happening today in digital. For me, back then travel retail was somehow like the digital of today. It was always featuring new ideas.
“So my message would be, let’s use colour, a new brand and a new proposition to really innovate the travel retail space and bring this concept of taking the time not only for self-reflection but for self-indulgence through colouring, through accessories, through special editions, through something we can absolutely create together.
“And there’s what is beautiful about STABILO – I don’t have any standardised approach that they need to stick to. And that’s what I think is our strongest asset.
“Knowing that the brand is already well-known everywhere in the world and knowing the flexibility of what we can do in terms of material, colour and product, ranging from the accessory to the writing. So if I were on the other side, I would jump on this opportunity.” ✈
Footnote: STABILO is exhibiting at TFWA World Exhibition (Blue Village G12). Contact Lead, Global Travel Retail Strategy, Karen Tse: karen.tse.ext@schwan-stabilo.com
