PUKKA Pads – the Dorset-headquartered stationery business whose products are sold around the world – saw a big rise in turnover as home workers turned to choosing their own supplies.

The company, based in Branksome, said turnover rose 15 per cent between 2020 and 2021 to £22.7million – its biggest growth in several years.

The move towards remote working has seen sales of stationery direct to the user boom. E-commerce sales contributed around 10 per cent of Pukka Pads’ revenue in 2021, compared with 1.5 per cent 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 two 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.”

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Pukka launched four new ranges and 50 new products in 2021, with its Bloom range the best-selling of the new products.

The company said orders from large retailers returned to pre-pandemic levels and it also took on new retail customers, including a major high street stationery store.

Sales from UK supermarkets grew by more than 11 per cent, with Tesco – its largest customer in 2021 – increasing orders by 11.5 per cent.

The company expanded its Yorkshire site with new offices and a new dry loading bay. It continued expanding its in-house e-commerce and marketing department in Poole.

Pukka Pads said it was preparing for the launch of a significant new range this spring, emphasising an environmentally conscious approach.