Forget your tablet, reach for your colouring pencils as new craze sweeps in

In these days of smartphones, tablets, wall-to-wall satellite TV channels and games consoles, the future of the humble colouring book could look grey. But a new lifestyle craze for doodling books for grown-ups, promising ways to combat stress, unleash our creative spirit and generally take time out from our increasingly gadget-obsessed lives, is taking off. In the USA, nine colouring books are currently among the top 20 best-selling products on Amazon. At crayon maker Staedtler in Germany, they have seen a boom in production, driven by demand from the U.S., Britain and South Korea.

These are models we’ve been making for years and demand always chugged along unspectacularly. But then all of a sudden, we weren’t able to manufacture enough. It’s incredible.

Andreas Martin, of Staedtler

But for the makers of crayons and colour pencils, the trend also poses a fundamental strategic question: is the current boom in demand just a passing fad or is it a new sustainable trend? “I dream about crayons at night,” says Andreas Martin, who manages a factory of the manufacturer Staedtler in Nuremberg, southern Germany. Without revealing any figures, Horst Brinkmann, head of marketing and sales at rival Stabilo Schwan, said sales of crayons had risen by more than 10% while the colouring craze enabled Staedtler to lift its sales by 14%t last year to €322 million ($350 million).

colouring craze