Papier's CEO bet on analog, and it's paying off

• Papier CEO Taymoor Atighetchi explains why he believes his brand is resonating in the age of AI.
• The stationery company doubled sales between 2022 and 2025.
• It is now expanding into board games, with backgammon and chess sets set to launch later this year.

In a world dominated by screens, Papier CEO Taymoor Atighetchi believes stationery has become a quiet form of escape.

Founded in 2015, stationery brand Papier has grown from a UK startup into a company serving 2.5 million customers globally. It doubled sales between 2022 and 2025, generating more than £40 million ($54 million) in the year ending January 2026.

The brand has been capitalizing on a broader push among millennials and Gen Z toward going analog. Atighetchi saw early signs of a "digital detox" among millennials when the company launched, but didn't anticipate how strongly Gen Z would later embrace it.

As more of life has moved online, digital fatigue has set in, driving renewed interest in offline hobbies like journaling, scrapbooking, and board games — a shift Papier is leaning into.

Now AI is adding another layer.

As concerns grow around job losses and the erosion of workplace skills, some consumers are seeking out experiences that feel more intentional and human.

AI is "going to accelerate the need for authenticity. It's going to accelerate people wanting human creativity," Atighetchi said.

"People will become sick of algorithms dictating everything they should do and say," he said. "Everything to do with writing — writing notes, letters — is very intentional. It's very human."

The handwritten note becomes more important than ever, he said.

This drive for authenticity is showing up in sales. Papier reported that notecards grew 33% year on year in 2025, while writing paper rose 23%. Notecards are particularly popular in the US, where sales in 2025 more than tripled those in the UK.

Stationery is a novelty for Gen Z

After studying History of Art at the University of Cambridge, Atighetchi worked as a management consultant at Bain.

It was during his time there that he identified that the stationery market needed disruption.

"I realized that this is actually quite a big niche, and one that needed some disruption and had no real category leader — or at least one that was more relevant to modern consumers," he said.

Papier was set up to be digital-first, offering consumers ways to personalize and buy stationery online.

And despite its analog offering, Papier is still, in principle, a "tech-heavy business," Atighetchi said.

While it was originally aimed at millennials, Gen Z now accounts for 35% to 40% of its customers.

Atighetchi said the company didn't foresee that this generation would become such a key customer for the brand. For millennials, stationery is nostalgic; for Gen Z, it's more of a novelty. "It's almost a new discovery," he said.

Products like its academic diaries have proven especially popular with this generation, with Papier selling around 1,400 of these a day during the back-to-school period.

The ability to personalize products on its website is also something Gen Z loves, he said.

Then there's the trendy aesthetic of its products. Papier works with up-and-coming British designers such as Luke Edward Hall and Damson Madder to stay current in its designs.

"We're very keen to always make sure that we're right at the front of trend, of design, of art, culture," Atighetchi said.

The company is now expanding further into offline experiences. It plans to open its own retail stores, starting in the UK, and is investing in games. It plans to launch chess and backgammon sets later this year.

Hobbies, particularly analog games that can be played with others, are being increasingly seen as an antidote to social isolation and screen fatigue.

"Anything that takes people away from digital experiences into physical experiences, that's something that Gen Z wants more and more and more of," Atighetchi said.

He's energized by a broader shift toward a more analog life.

"It's good for our brains and our souls and for future generations that we're not just sitting and scrolling," he said.

"You know, I think it's a good news story if you tell people, 'you know what people are sketching again,' I think everyone collectively feels that that's great for the world," he added.