IN an age when most people carry powerful computers in their pockets, writing things down with old-fashioned pen and paper has become surprisingly cool.

That’s the experience of Pukka Pads, the Dorset-headquartered stationery brand whose products are sold across the UK and in around 40 other countries.

CEO Chris Stott says young people are driving a resurgence in stylish stationery.

“We grew up with paper, so computers are exciting because we didn’t have that,” he said.

“A youngster growing up on a computer, they actually think ‘Oh, I’ve now got a diary! I can actually write things down and that’s mine and no one ever sees what I’m writing in that'.

“I think there’s something nice about that, whereas there’s nothing nice about computers at all.”

Pukka Pads employs around 70 people in the UK, with distribution and manufacturing done in Yorkshire, in addition to production overseas.

But its offices near Branksome roundabout, where around 25 people are employed, are “the engine”, said Mr Stott.

“This is the studio, the sales, the order processing and marketing,” he said.

Mr Stott left school early to work in a print company. He asked his boss for a job in sales after he met his wife and wanted an end to “dirty fingernails and shift work”.

Pukka Pads started in Swindon in the 1990s but was so popular that it was struggling to keep up with customer demand. Mr Stott and his then-boss snapped up the brand, and he later bought it from his boss.

“We were mainly supplying B2B (business to business) and catalogues but then the success story really started when we put nice designs on the Pukka Pads and went into retail,” said Mr Stott.

“It seems to me whatever we put our brand to, it does quite well. It’s a very catchy name – you don’t forget it.

“It used to be just about what their hair looked like or what they were wearing but absolutely now it’s the whole caboodle, down to what notepad they’re putting on the desk at school.”

Developing new products is a “huge” part of the  business, he said.

“The reason the supermarkets like us is because we do new designs every year. They want a new back to school range. We’re very good at that; big companies aren’t,” he added.

The firm recently launched a retail website so customers can buy direct.

It has also been spending more time engaging with “influencers”, including a rising number of people running Instagram accounts dedicated to beautiful study notes.

Pukka Pads recently bought a small American company, Carpe Diem, whose products are about planning days and weeks on paper. It has brought the brand to the UK, where the fashion for paper planning also seems to be taking off.

Putting your thoughts on paper is not only attractive but often more effective, Mr Stott said.

“If you write it down on a piece of paper, it’s proven to be 10 times more likely to stay into your head,” he said.

Paper is better for the environment, he insists, especially if sourced from sustainably forested trees.

“If we carry on the way we’re going, we’re going to have 20 times more mountains than we’ve got at the moment but they’ll all be mountains of plastics,” he added.

For all its success, Pukka Pads is a “minuscule company”.

“Stationery is massive. The two biggest competitors I have both turn over £1billion a year," he said.

But he says his business is a British success story.

“Your Oxfords, your Cambridges, these have all been sold to French companies," he added.

"We’re virtually the only English brand left and we’re manufacturing in the UK."