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Shobha Kannan

Kolkata, Feb. 21 The books and stationeries business seems to be relatively insulated by the economic downturn with the demand and sales of books and stationeries almost doubling this year, as compared to the same period last year, according to industry experts.

“Books can be your best friend even in times of recession; this explains why there has been an increase in demand and sales of books,” said a senior official at Oxford Bookstore. Oxford has registered a 10 per cent rise in sales so far this year, as compared to the corresponding period last year.

“Reading habits are fast catching up which is reflected in the higher sales and footfalls at our store,” he pointed out.

The education sector has also been relatively ‘recession free’, according to Mr Chand Das, Chief Executive, ITC-Education & Stationery Products Business. ITC Ltd has registered 50-60 per cent growth in its stationeries business so far this year vis-À-vis same period last year, Mr Das told Business Line.

“While the Classmate division (notebooks for school and college goers) has registered a healthy growth, there has been some slowdown in the Paperkraft (executive segment — premium business papers for printing, faxing etc) division as offices are in general cutting costs,” he pointed out. The executive segment, which saw a growth of about 20 per cent last year, has slowed down to some extent and has grown at 13-14 per cent, he pointed out.

Buoyed by the success of its Classmate category notebooks, the company is also planning to launch other products such as geometry boxes, pens and pencils in order to complete the bouquet of offerings.

“We will be launching writing instruments and scholastic products in the next six months on a pan-India basis. The market for these products has been growing on a double-digit,” Mr Chand said.

Emami Group’s Starmark has also witnessed doubling of its books and stationeries sales this year, against last year, according to Mr Gautam Jatia, Chief Executive Officer, Starmark. “Our two new stores have contributed positively to the sales growth this year,” he said.

The company has taken a franchise for Disney school bags with some popular characters such as Hannah Montana, fairies and others. The company will start selling these bags from its existing outlets as a part of its ‘Back to School’ programme beginning March and would also look at national distribution. It plans to sell 75,000 school bags in the first year and 3-4 lakh bags by 2010-2011, Mr Jatia said.

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