Daybreak - How Doms is schooling ITC in India’s stationery business

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

If you’ve ever used a Classmate notebook or a Doms pencil, you’ve already been an unwitting part of one of India’s quietest rivalries in action.For years, ITC ruled the stationery aisle — backed by its giant paper mills and powerful brands. But Gujarat-based Doms is catching up fast.Since its 2023 IPO, Doms’ sales have surged, its stock has tripled, and it’s closing in on ITC’s notebook empire. With everything made in-house and a perfectionist at the helm, Doms is turning pencils into profit, and giving one of India’s biggest conglomerates a run for its money.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too? It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon Ganesh, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert as soon as we release our first episode, please follow Intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. If you've ever picked up a packet of ready-made chapati flour, a bar of soap or even a notebook, then you already know ITC. It's the country's second largest FMCG conglomerate,

valued at nearly $60 billion and it houses some of India's most iconic brands. Think Asherabad or Fiama or even the Thai Tabri staple goldflake. This 115-year-old corporation is among India's most successful and it has a foot in nearly

every major sector you can think of. But here's where things get interesting. There's a plucky new challenger trying to take on ITC. What might surprise you is that it isn't coming for the Conglegged its tobacco crown or even a slice of its sizable FMCG pie. The race is taking place quite literally on a different page altogether,

with pens, pencils and paper. Now, if you've been through the rigours of the Indian education system, then you must also be familiar with ITC's two in-house stationery brands, classmate and papercraft. Despite being classroom staples, they have been among its less glamorous offerings for decades now. And yet, today they are being pulled back into relevance as this new challenger enters the stage. And this new contender in question is none other than Gujarat-based dorms industries.

Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host Rachel Virgis and every day of the week, my co-host, Snickta Sharmanai, will bring you one new story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Wednesday, the 29th of October. Now, if you didn't know, ITC set up its paper manufacturing business in 19, 1979 and quickly became one of India's biggest producers. They own two of the biggest paper mills in India. My colleague, the Ken reporter Noha, spoke to a manager from ITC.

They said that the sheer volume of paper produced by these two mills is enough to make it difficult for any other producer in India to compete with ITC. But that hasn't stopped DOMS from drying. Dom's went public in 2023 when his annual sales were around 1,200 crore rupees, which was barely half of what ITC's class. classmate and Papercraft brands were making. Fast forward to FY25, and Dombs has hit 1,900 crore rupees in sales, which matches two-thirds of ITC's sales share.

Since the IPO, the company's stock has tripled. Its market value currently stands at 15,500 crore rupees. Who knew pensions could be this lucrative? Well, it seems like Dombs did. All the way back in 2006, it stopped making pencils for others and started making its own. Right now, pensers remain its top seller. which account for 30% of its revenue. But now, Dorms wants to challenge ITC on its home turf, paper.

It started off by purchasing a 15% stake in Supertrets, a paper manufacturer. And then, Dorms raised its share in Pioneer Stationery to nearly 60%. Basically, they're steadily coming after classmates' notebook market share. Now, notebook sales account for 90% of classmates' revenue. So you can see why Doms' move might make ITC a little anxious. And it's not just paper. Dombs is also spreading its presence beyond stationary. They're branching out into toys, school bags and even baby diapers.

The goal? To build what one manager calls an ecosystem like ITC, with the aim to cater to a child's needs. The company wants to serve children throughout their growing years, from kindergarten to their teens. A lot of this vision and ambition comes from the Ravasia and Rajani families, who have been growing the company since 19-770. As third generation air, Oam Ravasia puts it,

When you're growing, the goal is to understand the consumer and keep upgrading. And both Doms and ITC have a simple yet effective way of keeping this growth going. More on this in the next segment. Hi, I'm Rahil, the host and producer of 90,000 hours, the Ken's podcast on the future of careers and workplaces. I'm pausing this episode to ask you a very quick question. How much time has AI actually saving? you at work. Now, I admit, it's not something most of us think about. I hadn't either.

But now that tools like chat GPT, Gemini, Claude, perplexity, have all become almost indispensable, it's worth asking, are they really living up to their promise? Are they making our workday shorter by taking tasks of our hands? And if they are, what are you doing with that time? I'd love to know. We are running a short survey for, an upcoming episode of 90,000 hours. You'll find the link in the show notes. It will just take you five minutes. And with that out of the way, let's get back to the episode.

What sets Doms apart from its rivals is that it makes nearly everything in-house. 99% of its products, in fact. From its best-seller pencils to geometry boxes, everything is designed, molded and manufactured under one roof. Ombravesia, the third-generation heir to Doms, told Noohar that Doms is in fact one of the few companies that makes the boxes itself. Most competitors outsource its manufacturing.

The thing is, it's the same playbook ITC has mastered over the decades. Remember the huge paper mills ITC owns and uses to maintain its dominance in paper sourcing? Well, Dom's is building out its own paper sourcing supply chain. It acquired super threats precisely to gain more control over costs. Here's why. Satish Mina, founder of market research firm Datum Intelligence, explained that when paper costs increase, the margins for the margins for notebooks decrease. An ITC manager told NUHA that margins are generally 10 to 20% when it comes

to notebooks. So when margins are already this precarious, without this kind of integration, it would be impossible to compete with someone like an ITC. By keeping production in-house, Doms has expanded its operating margins, from 15% to 18% in two years, which when it comes to the sales of inexpensive products sold in high quantities like stationary, can add up and translate into a massive profit. What's also helping Dom stay ahead is its dedication to launching new products. Ravasia said that the company takes every chance it can get to expand its product portfolio. You know, those Batman and Spider-Man shaped pens or those colourful scented erasers, those are the kind of products that Dom sells along with its most basic pensers.

These specialty products give them higher margins. The company also launches at least 10 new products a month to attract consumers' attention. The result is 4,300 SKUs in comparison to Classmate and Papercraft's 2000. To sell all these products, Doms has partnered with a sprawling distribution network of over 100 superstockists, 3,500 distributors and 1,000 retail outlets across the country. And this drive to constantly innovate and expand is credited to the man in charge. Santosh Ravasia. Stay tuned.

Santos Sraveh Asia runs everything at Doms. from finance to scalability to overall management. He learned the ropes while working at Hindustan Unilever's brand Kisan Ketchup and came and applied all his sales and distribution learnings at Doms. His experience and his exacting nature started paying off from the very beginning. The company started with pencils. Almost immediately, Doms differentiated itself from the rest of the market by selling polymer pencils instead of the usual graphite and clay pencils.

This made them stand out because the pencils were stronger and had done. darker writing. Once it established themselves in a few core categories, Ravisha said they wasted no time moving into others. Now, that doesn't mean they were just launching products left and right though. A former dorms manager said that if a product wasn't perfect when they tested it, Ravisha wouldn't accept it. For instance, take the geometry boxes we mentioned earlier. If you remember the time of math exams and geometry tests, you'll likely remember how easy it was to dent and warp these boxes. To rectify this, Dorms started to. using a different kind of metal sheet for its own boxes, which could take hits without bending,

all while dressed up in a gloss-mat combination. And this perfectionism didn't just stay contained in R&D. Everyone from office employees to the Ravasia Rajani families would use new products and offer feedback. In fact, the younger generation, including Oam, grew up using Dom's products. So once the company had identified a problem and innovated around it to put out a new product, the rest was just word of mouth. Of course, kids can't wait to buy the coolest new product on the block.

The dent-proof geometry box, for example, was launched in 2023. Dombs called it the geodrawn box and priced it at a hundred rupees. Then they packed it with extra products like a pen and a lead pencil. An ITC manager even admitted to Noha that no one else in the market was doing it like Dom's at that time. He even said that the packaging was outstanding. ITC wasn't all that quick to catch up either. They launched a similar box called Octane only in April this year. In the meantime, Doms is targeting visibility online through e-commerce and quick commerce channels.

Rahul Shah, Doms' chief financial officer said during a recent earnings call that they're aiming to be a convenient purchase for their consumers. Now, over 40% of its sales come from online platforms. It's even dominating modern trade stores as well, though it still trades, behind ITC in smaller tier 3 towns, but its distribution abroad is still quite strong. In 2012, Dombs teamed up with Italian stationary giant Fila to go global. The partnership gave Dom's access to manufacturing know-how and product innovation. In return, Fila helped distribute Dom's products and markets like the US, where Fila already

had a strong presence. Ravasia said that even though Doms doesn't have factories abroad, Fila distributes its products in the US while other partners handle markets elsewhere. Today, Dom sells in over 50 countries and international sales make up nearly 15% of its total revenue. And it's nowhere close to slowing down. Ravisha aims to be the biggest in the business. So Dombs is focusing on growing its numbers, range and portfolio.

He still remembers his father's advice fondly. If something is important, don't be afraid to bet on it. So with a new 44-8-4-8-4-4-4-4. acre green field manufacturing facility on the way, Doms is clearly betting big on its future. But then again, so is ITC. May the best stationery maker win. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken India's first subscriber-focused business news platform.

What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription offers daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and a whole bunch of premium podcasts. To subscribe, head to the Ken.com. and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the Ken website. Today's episode was hosted and produced by my colleague Rachel Vargis and edited by Rajiv Sien.