Pukka Pads has reported a significant 15% year-on-year turnover increase from 2020 to 2021. This is the most significant growth the business has seen in several years, as the stationery market benefits from new working patterns across the country.

The British brand’s success comes as a combination of external and internal factors. While many UK businesses adopted remote or hybrid working models last year, Pukka Pads consequently saw an increase in sales directly from the consumer through Amazon and its own newly-launched consumer-facing website.

Major growth in direct-to-consumer online retailing is significantly influencing the stationery brand’s business model. In 2021, eCommerce sales contributed to approximately 10% of Pukka Pads’ total revenue, up from 1.5% the previous year.

Pukka Pads’ founder and managing director, Chris Stott, said: “2021 was an incredibly successful year for us. Our most popular products were unwavering in their success; we sold over 2 million A4 Metallic Jotta Pads alone, and although we are an established and trusted brand, we continue to innovate and maximise new opportunities to grow sales.

“The new ranges we released in 2021, coupled with our first consumer-facing website, were designed with changing consumer demands in mind. With working from home now the norm, consumers want to choose stationery that reflects their personality and have it delivered straight to their door. Choosing your own notebooks, diaries and pens becomes more of an experience than picking it up from the office stationery cupboard and we’re seeing more and more that consumers have rediscovered their love for handwriting and jotting that they perhaps lost after finishing education.

“Consumers like the fact that they can access brighter and bolder products from the same trusted stationery brand, and this is a pattern that is now being reflected in retailer buying, as they also adapt their stock to consumer needs.”

In 2021, the brand launched four new ranges and 50 new products. The Bloom range proved particularly popular and was Pukka Pads’ bestselling new range of the year.

With non-essential retail returning to a more level playing field in 2021, orders from large retailers returned to pre-pandemic levels and Pukka Pads also took on new retail customers, including a major highstreet stationery store.

Pukka Pads’ largest customers include the major UK-wide supermarkets and over the past year, sales from these grew by over 11%. Tesco was the stationery brand’s largest customer in 2021 and increased its order size by 11.53%, demonstrating increased demand for stationery products.

As a result of continued growth, Pukka Pads has recently expanded its Yorkshire site with new offices and a brand-new dry loading bay. Alongside an expanding direct to consumer arm of the business, Pukka Pads hired and continues to expand its in-house eCommerce and marketing department.

Pukka Pads is continually innovating and its design team works hard to release new, vibrant ranges each year. The company is preparing for the launch of a significant brand-new range coming this spring, that emphasises the brand’s environmentally conscious approach and drives consumers to consider their impact on the planet.