Introduction

Global demand for stationery products has remained subdued as laptops, desktops, and smartphones
have replaced traditional stationery items, such as pens, pencils, and notebooks in various settings.
The global stationery industry has felt the impact of digitalization, and many leading brands have
turned to repurposing their offerings as ‘gift’ and ‘collector’s’ items. The silver lining for
manufacturers remains the pervasiveness of stationery products in educational institutions and
workplaces. On account of steady demand from educational institutes and workplaces, the global
stationery market is likely to witness a moderate growth during the period 2017-2026.

With the growing need to simplify assigned tasks, demand for business stationery in various
companies will continue to increase globally. Sales of continuous stationery products such as typing
sheets, carbon papers, rough-work pads, pencils, letter-heads, folders and files is expected to increase
attributed to increasing demand in various companies. Companies are focusing on investing in other
continuous stationaries such as special accounting forms and invoices in order to improve
productivity. In order to increase the output, companies are further investing in customizing their
stationery to convey business professionalism to their clients.

On the other hand, growing advancements in technology has led to increasing preference for storing
information on the smartphones. As the information stored on the smart devices can conveniently
retrieved when required. Moreover, storing information on the smart devices has reduced the need to
manage stack of papers, which in turn has led to less spending on the stationery products. The
industry professionals prefer developing documentations and storing the business related information
on the databases. These factors are expected to dip the sales of the traditional stationery products in
the global market during the forecast period. 

India Stationery market holds tremendous growth potential as the country has nearly 22-24
crore students studying and requiring notebooks and other stationery materials. Increasing number of
schools and offices, improved standard of living as well as shift in focus from inexpensive to
premium quality products on account of rapidly burgeoning economy are some of the crucial factors
which would drive the demand for stationery products in India over the next six years. Further,
government initiatives such as National Policy on Education and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to ensure
low cost and quality compulsory education for all would also spur the growth of stationery market
in India.
India stationery market revenues are projected to grow at a CAGR of 10.5% during 2018-24.

In India, major demand for stationery products is generated from education sector due to increasing
enrollment of students in schools and higher educational institutions. Further, growing e-commerce
industry in the country is also contributing to rising sales of stationery products. Office segment is
the second highest consumer of stationery products and is anticipated to register healthy growth
during the forecast period due to growing demand for stationery products in the service sector.

Amongst all, paper stationery accounted for the major revenue share in the overall India stationery
market. Exercise notebooks, copier paper and premium paper stationery are the key revenue
generating segments. Furthermore, exercise notebook segment has captured highest share in paper
stationery market. Amongst all the regions, the Northern region accounted for highest revenue share
in 2017. Market is expected to surge on account of growing youth population and literacy rate across
the country. 

The report thoroughly covers the stationery market by type, applications and regions. The report
provides an unbiased and detailed analysis of the on-going trends, opportunities/high growth areas
and market drivers which would help the stakeholders to device and align their market strategies
according to the current and future market dynamics.

Current scenario
The Indian stationery industry is highly scattered and is largely dominated by the unorganised sector
and the situation is quite alarming for the organised players industry. Factors like lack of modern
production facilities, unorganised nature of functioning, marginal demands, government policies and
international competition are largely contributing to the slow growth of the organised stationery
industry in India.  
However, the industry is now showing signs of organised growth, as a result of tremendous increase
in the demand for the stationery products in India. This demand can be attributed to the entry of a
large number of international brands in India. The Indian stationery industry is largely shared by the
educational and office stationery products. Particularly in the school stationery category, the
percentage of schoolbooks captures the bulk of the market. The national market for syllabus-based
books is estimated at Rs10 billion and is growing at 20 per cent per annum. Relatively, other
departments from the stationery industry generate more or less equal percentage of growth.
As compared to the Indian market, the international market involves more innovative trends. With
the emergence of international brands like Faber Castle, Kores, Maped, etc. in the Indian market, the
market has become highly competitive in both quality and price. Mr Sivaraman Balakrishnan,
Deputy Manager Marketing, Crossword Bookstore says, “I think, the present day consumer is
educated, has a knack for experimentation, has the capacity to spend and above all, wants value for
money. Given the scenario, the penetration of more and more luxury brands and consumers opting
for them is no big surprise. As for local formats, well they have their own share of market and will
continue to exist.” According to Mr N.V.Sivakumar, leader retail practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers,
“Consumers want an increased variety of choice in stationery products ranging from private
label/branded, domestic/international, etc. As companies expand their footprint, it is essential that
they provide their workforce with the right tools to make their jobs easier — pens that last,
highlighters that do not dry up, file folders that are durable, etc.  It is important to ensure that
products are of good quality and priced competitively.”
Though competition drives the market crazy for new products, it has its positive side too, as this way
the consumer can get the best product he wishes for, in different price ranges. Indian buyers are price
sensitive but are ready to spend more if dependable products are offered. However, the buying
behavior of the consumer towards stationery products is that of rawness about the variety of products
or the correct usage of the product available in the market. This is because the share of the
unorganised players in the industry is much higher than the organised players.
Prominent players
In India, though stationery is largely retailed through local or small players, the industry is gradually
moving towards the organised mould. Some of the key players in the organised stationery segment
are Crossword bookstores, Books and Beyond, Cartoleria, Office 1 super Store, Depot, Odyssey,
Write Site, Luxor, Office Linc.
Crossword bookstores came into being on October 16, 1992 as an IBH Publications initiative. In the
year 2000, it was bought out by Shopper’s Stop. Currently, Crossword has 53 stores across 13 cities.
Cartoleria Retailing Private Limited is promoted by Gujarat has a mission to accomplish stationery
retailing with pan India operations. The company operates 12 stores at present. Indo Rama Retail
Holdings Pvt. Ltd (IRRHPL) has forayed into the Indian retail space in collaboration with a US-
based company Office1 Superstore International. Presently, there are 7 stores functional in Delhi /
NCR, Chandigarh, Chennai and Pondicherry Another player, Depot, is one of the youngest brands
from the Future Group stable. Led by Mr Kishore Biyani, the Future Group operates through six
verticals: retail, capital, brands, space, media and logistics. In 1995, Odyssey opened its flagship
store in the southern suburbs of Chennai in Adyar. Odyssey is a fully owned subsidiary of Deccan
Chronicle Holdings Limited. Today, Odyssey operates through 31 stores in 13 cities with 1.76 lakh
sq.ft of retail space under its operations. Books & Beyond, a new vertical of Spencer’s Retail
launched its first store in 2007. The company has aggressively extended the footprint of Books &
Beyond ever since, with stores in Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. The
latest Books & Beyond store was launched in Jamshedpur on November 7, 2008. Write Site, a novel
concept in retailing, is an exclusive showroom for writing instruments. It showcases a range of
global products from Sanford and Reynolds, in a smart yet easy ambiance. Write Site presently has
operations in Chennai, Guntur, Hyderabad, Noida, Gurgaon, Indore and Ahmedabad.
Headed by Mr D.K.Jain, LUXOR started manufacturing writing instruments in India in the year
1963. Today, LUXOR is the brand leader in the Indian writing instrument industry, having a market
share of over 20 per cent, with an excellent network of dealers and distributors. LUXOR was formed
in the year 1991. Another prominent brand is Office Linc, a retailing arm of Kolkata-based Linc Pens
& Plastics. The company has 10 ‘Just Linc’ stores all over India.
 
Stationery types
Stationery products are required by everyone from school to organisations. The target consumers of
this industry are schools and offices. The stationery industry can be classified into two sectors.
School stationery: It consists of a wide range of stationery products used by teachers and students in
the schools. It includes popular stationery products like notebooks, erasers, pencils, rulers,
sharpeners, writing boards, exam boards, graph book, pencil boxes, geometry boxes, notebooks
covers, glue sticks, maps, children paper clips and binders, pencil grippers, calculators and many
more.
Office stationery: Products include correction products, book/ magazine racks, business organisers,
card holders, cash boxes, clip boards, dampers, desk calendars, desk organisers, document holders,
glues, glue sticks, letter openers, message pads, stick ups, plastic paper clips, paper trays, paper
weights, pen holders, trays, stands, pen holders, cases, pocket planners, punches, rubber bands,
scales, rulers, scissors, stamp pad inks, stamp pads, staple removers, staple pins, staplers, tapes and
dispensers, telephone diaries, etc.
Writing instruments: It includes ball pens, correction fluids, pens, tapes, synthetic, PVC  Erasers,
fountain pens, gel pens, highlighters, inks, markers, 0.5 and 2 mm pencils, micro tip pens, pen refills,
pen sets, pencil leads, roller pens, sharpeners, marking pens.
Just as with any other manufactured products, the economics of pencil manufacturing are driven by a
number of factors.

These cost drivers include:

 cost of raw materials (wood, graphite, clay, brass or aluminum for ferrules, lacquer
components, etc.)
 cost of parts or other finished components used to assemble the pencil
 cost of transportation and handling of various materials used and of the finished product to
the factory
 cost of labor and benefits for the factory workers employees
 cost of energy
 cost of supplies used to maintain equipment
 cost of government regulations (taxes, duties, compliance to safety, labor or environmental
rules)
 cost of capital (money used to buy equipment, to purchase and maintain inventories of raw
materials, parts, supplies and finished product)
 cost of management

Pencil companies make a number of important decisions regarding these costs as part of their
business. Some of the most important decisions include:

 the quality of product they wish to produce will impact which raw materials and component
parts they will purchase
 alternative suppliers for raw materials
 whether to make internally or buy externally different component parts like slats, leads,
ferrules and erasers or even semi-finished pencils from other pencil manufacturers (NOTE: Read
about the famous essay I, Pencil to learn more about the important economic principal of
specialization of production and how free market pricing system leads to best organization and
allocation of resources into firms in an industry)
 where to locate their pencil factories which is driven by relative difference in costs between
cities, states or countries for labor and materials, transportation costs for incoming materials as
well as to the customer, regulatory and energy cost as well as duties and taxes
 the quantity of product to produce drives the level of investment required in the factory and
inventories as well as can effect the cost per unit produced due to economies of scale.
The pencil manufacturer strives to minimize the cost of producing the pencils at the desired quality
level and quantity of production and to sell all these pencils for more than the cost in order to achieve
a profit.

All of these decisions are made within the framework of the marketplace and the competition the
pencil maker faces for business from the other producers. The level of competition can have a big
impact on the profit in an industry or segment of the pencil market. Each company tries to focus on
what competitive advantage it has versus other pencil makers and what it can do better than others.
This is why different companies specialize only in certain markets or product ranges to try to set
themselves apart.

These days, typical yellow writing pencils and children’s coloring pencils are generally considered to
be a commodity. That is, one product from one producer is more or less considered by the customer
to be as good as another, just like corn from one farm is more or less the same as corn from another
farm. When this occurs the price often becomes the key purchase factor for the pencils. Then it is
more difficult to make a profit without a strong brand name or other point of difference in terms of
product feature or performance.

A key factor that effects the competition is the increasing level of international trade like many
others has globalized. Many poorer countries such as China, Indonesia and India have . As more
markets have opened up to more producers from more countries around the world the pencil industry
dramatically increased pencils production and export because of a general cost advantage in
materials, labor and reduced regulatory environments.The concept of making velvet pencil is very
unique and attractive because we can see pencil is useful at everywhere from school till the office. In
every field either it is in geography or in drawing in every sector it is useful. The important thing is
that pencil is a thing which uses in a whole world in a regular use. So demand of it never ever will
fall.

It is a business which anyone can start-up and make a profit even woman can also do business by
buying a velvet pencil making machine within a very small capital investment.

Now the question is that..why we just chose a velvet pencil bcoz today’s era is modern era. U can
sell that product which are more attractive and qualitative. And the velvet pencil is available in many
colours and gives a good look. Even children can be attractive to write more with this pencil And in
big industries, hotels, and in any business logo of that firm can be printed on this pencil which looks
more effective. And it is a unique concept which gives profitability.