When to stock notebook covers: a December to July calendar for distributors

Order in December and January, have stock on your shelf by February, and expect your two busiest stretches around April and June. Notebook covers sell most from February to June, before schools reopen. Most of our range is made to order, so the distributor who plans in winter is the one whose retailers have stock in March.

At Jagannath Polymers Pvt Ltd (JPPL) we sell our covers to distributors and wholesale dealers, the trade that supplies stationery shops and school suppliers, so I wrote this for you. The rest of it is the month-by-month version, and one change in Rajasthan that every distributor supplying the state should know about.

Why notebook cover demand comes in waves

Schools in India do not all start on the same day. A cover is bought when the new books are bought, so the sales follow the school calendar.

1. CBSE schools start in April. The board's circular Aff-07/2023 of 17 March 2023 asks all affiliated schools not to begin the session before 1 April and to follow a 1 April to 31 March session.
2. Rajasthan government schools moved to April too. The state's school education department moved the new session to 1 April 2026, from the earlier July start, with summer vacation from 16 May to 20 June (Rajasthan Patrika, 6 March 2026).
3. Several other states still open in June. Chhattisgarh, for example, started its 2026-27 session on 16 June 2026 (Amar Ujala, 14 June 2026).

So there are two waves.

I would plan for both. The first is late March and April. The second is June and early July, when the June-start states open and the April-start schools come back from summer vacation needing fresh covers for the books that wore out.

The Rajasthan change is big for us. Our Standard rolls are our biggest seller in Rajasthan, and until 2025 its government schools started the year in July. If the April start continues, a large part of that demand moves three months earlier. A distributor who orders on the old timing will be late.

I would not take that risk.

School calendars change, and every state decides its own. Check your own state's school education department notice each year before you fix your plan.

The calendar, month by month

December and January: the months that decide your season

This is the work nobody sees.

A good season is decided at a desk in December, not at the counter in April.

Start with last season's numbers. How many rolls of each design did you sell, and which ones ran out first? Which ones are still sitting in a carton? Then look at the school lists in your area. A town where most schools ask for transparent covers needs a different order from a town where the lists say brown.

Our four best sellers across the range are Student JPPL, Unique, Floura and Clear. That is a fair starting point if you have no history of your own. I still trust your own numbers more than mine.

If you want custom printed covers in your own design, January is the latest sensible month to send the artwork. See custom printed notebook covers for what to send.

February and March: get stock moving

From February the season is on. For a distributor, the job now is to get stock out to retailers before their customers come in. A carton in your godown in March is not selling.

For the retailers you supply, February is the month to set up the display, so that the first parent who walks in with a book list sees the full range. Our note on helping your retailers sell more covers covers the counter side of it.

In March, top up only what is clearly moving.

I would keep new experiments for next year.

April to July: sell, top up, then stop

April is the peak for April-start schools. Watch your fast movers weekly. If a design is running out, reorder at once and ask for the stock item or a design the maker already has running.

May is quieter at the counter in most places. Use it to restock for June.

By July the season is ending. Late buyers still come, and so do parents replacing torn covers. Stop reordering by early July, and plan to carry the rest to next year.

How much to stock

I cannot give you a number that fits every distributor, and I do not want to guess yours. Your retailers' sales from last season are the best start. Without them, a simple way to estimate is this.

1. Count the notebooks and textbooks on a typical school list in your area.
2. Estimate how many families buy their covers from the shops you supply.
3. Convert books into rolls. On a 14 inch roll, one regular notebook of about 24 x 18 cm uses about 43 cm of length. So an 8 m roll covers about 18 such notebooks, a 5 m roll about 11 and a 3 m roll about 6.
4. Add a margin for replacement covers in June and July.

These are estimates for one common notebook size. Measure one of your own books before you plan a big order. Our sizes and packing page has the carton counts for every series.

What we keep in stock, and what we do not

We keep two items in stock all year: Standard natural rolls in 11 inch x 2 m and 13 inch x 3 m. Everything else is made to order.

That is our limit, and I prefer to say it in November rather than in April. A made-to-order cover needs plant time. Covers sell most from February to June, so in March and April every distributor wants that plant time at once. An order placed in January is made before the rush. An order placed in the middle of the rush waits in the queue like everyone else's.

Storing covers between seasons

Covers left over in July are not a loss if you store them well.

1. Keep cartons flat and off a damp floor.
2. Keep them away from direct sun and heat, so the rolls do not soften or stick.
3. Keep boxed rolls in their outer carton, so the printed boxes stay clean for sale.
4. Write the count on each carton when you close it, so December's planning starts with real numbers.

If you want to plan next season with us, send us your list in December: designs, widths and rough quantities. We will tell you what we can make before February.