Staying authentic in a digital world

paper republic, an Austrian startup founded 13 years ago by Jérôme Bacquias, has charted a remarkable path to success. Centered on its exclusive leather notebooks, a brand has emerged that has established itself through authenticity, understated beauty, and refined design. The notebooks are crafted as long-lasting companions for recording appointments, putting ideas to paper, and capturing thoughts and sketches. Offering a deeply personal glimpse into paper republic’s origin story with Zünd, Bacquias recounts: “I had just quit my job and was about to become a father. I had no prior experience with paper or leather. Everyone was building apps—I chose paper. While companies were outsourcing their production to Asia, we stayed in Europe. Our goal is to create authentic products with a story and a soul.”

Every detail of the notebook concept has been carefully considered and elegantly executed. paper republic notebooks aren’t finished products. Customers choose a leather cover in their preferred color and format, then customize and continuously refresh their notebook with refills.

The cover – made from vegetable-tanned Italian leather – lasts for years, gradually developing a unique patina. It can even be personalized with names or initials. The refills feature beautiful illustrations, with paper sourced from Sweden and Austria. The paper is wood-free and FSC-certified. The refills are, of course, printed in Austria, and the open-thread binding lends them an air of exclusivity.

Jérôme Bacquias’s idea has been a resounding success. Today, the company employs a staff of 100, producing around 1,000 notebooks daily at its Vienna manufacturing facility and shipping them worldwide. The brand recently opened its first flagship store in Vienna. The shop also features a café and a studio, inviting visitors to stay for a while and get creative. “Vienna is part of our DNA. We wanted our flagship store to capture the atmosphere of the city – shaped by history yet forward-looking – with local materials and an open, welcoming feel,” explains Bacquias.

paper republic produces exclusively on demand. The company prioritizes handling as many production steps as possible in-house, both to generate value internally and to deliver quality without compromise. As order volumes grew, production hit capacity limits – especially given the short response and delivery times expected in online business.

Bottlenecks occurred particularly in leather cutting, which relied on a manual press. paper republic needed a solution to significantly boost cutting productivity. This led the company to Zünd, the Swiss manufacturer that offers the L3 Cutter – a digital cutting system for the leather industry with a proven track record worldwide. paper republic was particularly impressed with the L3 cutter because it is designed to run continuously. This is made possible by a tandem workflow, which divides the L3's work area into two halves. While cutting takes place on one half of the table, the next job can be prepared on the other.

By operating the cutter in this tandem configuration, paper republic reports a threefold increase in output compared to manual die-cutting. Max Busch, who works in Operations & Process Optimization, also values the fact that precision cutting eliminates the need for additional labor such as edge burning or manual trimming. The cost of dies is eliminated as well.

Since leather is an organic material, each hide is visually graded by a team member prior to cutting, with any flaws or irregularities marked in chalk. A camera captures the hide along with the markings, and any defective areas are excluded from the cutting process. Next, the parts are nested on the hide to optimize leather usage as much as possible and minimize waste. At the same time, paper republic's design team often finds creative ways to turn even the smallest pieces of leather scraps into additional notebook components, such as pen loops that attach elegantly to the refill or leather cover with a magnet.

A welcome bonus with the Zünd cutter is that it captures production data, giving paper republic real-time insight into what is being produced, when, and in what quantities. The design team also relies on the Zünd L3 for product development, as it makes testing and further refinement exceptionally quick and easy. As a result, the product portfolio keeps expanding – and paper republic never runs out of ideas. The Zünd cutter also demonstrates its versatility in the production of brand-compliant promotional items. Beyond this, the Zünd cutter has also enabled the company to tap into new applications, including short-run paperboard packaging for personalized promotional gifts. Here, paper republic also benefits from the modular design of Zünd cutters, which can adapt and scale with evolving requirements.

Investing in a Zünd L3 Cutter has allowed paper republic to realign production capacity with demand and respond more rapidly to market needs. Despite digitalizing the cutting process, the company has retained its artisan character. By embracing digital cutting technology, paper republic is ideally positioned to drive future growth.