Cloth & Paper expands to larger Henrico warehouse

Online business Cloth & Paper, which primarily sells leather planners and the inserts and dividers that go in them, moved into a 12,756-square-foot warehouse and office flex space at Mill Business Center on Hermitage Road in Henrico Nov. 1.

The company was created in 2015 by Ashley Reynolds, a VCU graduate, and she and her husband, Ryan, operate it together full-time. Ashley Reynolds started Cloth & Paper out of the couple’s spare bedroom in Raleigh, North Carolina and launched the brand as an Instagram account, which has since accumulated almost 800,000 followers.

“Ashley’s always had a love for office supplies, paper planning and that sort of thing, and she was in the market for a new planner, but everything she was finding was not her style,” Ryan Reynolds said. “It either wasn’t super professional, or if it was, it was too dull, so she set out to put her own spin on something. She essentially found a niche that she could go after. [W]hen she really started researching it, she found there was this whole planner community on YouTube and Instagram where people just get really into these products, or planning in general, so she took a deep dive into that, and everyone was really receptive to the products she started to create.”

Along with its popular Instagram account, Cloth & Paper has a blog on its website and a YouTube channel on which the brand posts updates and tips for staying organized.

In addition to its leather planners, Cloth & Paper sells stickers, writing tools, notepads and stationary accessories.

Individual purchases make up about 60% of the company’s revenue, with the remaining 40% coming from the brand’s monthly subscription service, Ryan Reynolds said.

The subscription service provides buyers with three box options: Penspiration, Planning + Stationary, and a combination package. The Penspiration box comes with 5-7 pens or writing tools for the monthly price of $18, the Planning + Stationary box comes with organizational supplies, writing tools and stationary items for $38, or for both it’s $48.

Cloth & Paper has 215 reviews on Cratejoy, a platform for subscription box businesses, and an average subscriber rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Many of the reviewers wrote that they were repeat customers.

“Cloth & Paper has reintroduced me to planning and how much I love it,” one customer wrote in April. “Their products are of the highest quality and unbelievably chic! They have given me and the masses something really positive to focus on during this uncertain time… The ability to organize our lives and the lives of our loved ones.”

Cloth & Paper relocated to its new Henrico spot after it outgrew its previous 3,600-square-foot location when it more than tripled its staff, from 12 to about 40 employees, and tripled its revenue since March.

“When the pandemic first came, like most businesses, we were pretty concerned and unsure of what was going to happen,” Ryan Reynolds said, “but surprisingly, we’ve been slammed since March. It was kind of the trajectory we were already on, of just growing and more people finding out about us, but a lot of it was also how shopping online became a form of entertainment when there was nothing else to do between March and June.”