How the colouring craze created a global shortage. Picture: Supplied.

Whether you’re 13 or 30, the pastime of putting pencil to paper has gone through a substantial growth in the past 12 month, with sales skyrocketing in the adult creative field.

“Pencils have gone up 300 per cent in sales in one year alone for our adult range,” Count Andy Faber-Castell told news.com.au

“The trend started in Brazil, England and the US first. We saw it coming towards Australia, so we were prepared for the increase when it arrived.”

Manufacturers admit meeting the colouring demand has been ‘challenging’ Picture: News Corp Australia.Source:News Corp Australia

But despite the preparation in Australia to cater for the demand, there has been “challenges” to meet with demand, especially overseas. In the UK, a surge in the number of people buying adult colouring books and pencil threatened stock worldwide as manufacturers struggled to keep up with demand.

In Australia, manufacturers such as Staedler, Faber-Castell and Crayola have all needed to up the ante in order to keep customers happy.

“When the demand hit Brazil, we were not prepared,” Count Andy Faber-Castell told news.com.au.

“But we have an incredible production power. We used to work in two shifts, but the demand meant we moved to three shifts, which meant we needed to employ more people and bring in new machinery.

The adult colouring range has seen a 300 per cent increase in sales during 2015. Picture: Supplied.Source:Supplied

National Sales Manager for Crayola, Julian Horvat, said the demand caused “production manufacturing challenges”, but said they were now starting to meet customer requirements after receiving large sale volumes over the Christmas period.

“There has been a huge surge in global demand which has seen production capacity challenges, and significantly extended lead times in supply to the Australian market,” Mr Horvat said.

“Leading into Christmas last year, we were unable to supply the full demand of pencils that was required by our retail partners, which did result in many retail stores having out of stocks on pencils, particularly on the larger pack sizes.

“The challenges in keeping up with demand has continued in the first couple of months of 2016, but having identified the increasing volumes last year, we have been building a stronger stock position to start keeping up with order requirements.

“We have in a better position in the more recent months having made the decision to lift our forecast and ordering to higher levels in anticipation of this increased demand.”

Adult colouring books and pencils have seen the greatest sale increase. Picture: Supplied.Source:Supplied

Staedler Australia’s Managing Director, Nich Lee, said 2015 and early 2016 also saw a record number in sales for the pencil manufacturer, with the brand admitting the craze did create a challenge.

“Last year saw a record figure in total dollars turnover for Staedtler here in Australia,” Mr Lee said.

“It has certainly been challenging keeping up with the increased demand not just here in Australia but against the background of record demand for Staedtler worldwide.

“We have managed this well for the local Australian market by constantly reviewing our stock holdings, increasing order frequency and airfreighting stock in if required. This is particularly important for Staedtler as the vast majority of the colour pencils that we sell in Australia are manufactured in Germany meaning we have to work ahead of the curve to ensure we can keep our customers and consumers in pencils.”

To cope with the challenge, the manufacturer also took a similar measure as Faber-Castell, and increased both man and machinery power.

“Additional staff have been appointed at our Staedtler production sites, working evenings and weekends to meet global demand,” Mr Lee said.

“The company has also invested in additional machinery.”

The craze has been linked to meditation and the perfect break from digital devices. Picture: iStock.Source:istock

In an interview with The Independent in the UK, Faber-Castell attributed the colouring trend as a desire to have a break from digital devices, because of its “relaxing and meditative nature”.

“There is something nice about picking up a pencil and a pen. You are not going to get interrupted by Twitter, and there is also a childhood nostalgia element to it.

“It allows you to catch a break from the fast-moving digital world and to give your eyes a rest from flickering computer screens.

“Colouring doesn’t require artistic training to get started, yet it offers a great sense of accomplishment when finishing a piece.”