WHL Closure Announcement
I am very sorry to announce that William Hannah Ltd will be closing later this year.
We will ship orders as normal until we close, although stocks of some items will inevitably start to sell out over the coming weeks and months.
My best estimate at the moment is that we will close sometime between August and September 2026, but that will depend on how stocks last.
A few things will change between now and then - specifically order limits on items to make things fairer for all customers, and the necessary discontinuation of some packs - more details can be found below.
As we approach the closure, I will add a section to the website explaining how you can continue to use your William Hannah notebook for years to come, with alternative options for pages and diaries, and which punches will work best with our rings.
I am really sad to be closing William Hannah - I have been blessed with some truly wonderful customers, and it has been a massive part of my life for over a decade - but unfortunately, common-sense says that it is time to close the business.
Why are we closing ?
Things have been getting more difficult for a while now, and whilst I have tried to compensate, there are now just too many challenges to overcome. Here are the main ones :
1. Reduced Sales
Our last 6 months sales are over 40% lower than a year ago.
Just under half of our business has traditionally come from the US, and over the past 6 months, US sales have declined by over 50%, due to a mixture of Tariffs, De Minimis abolition and lower Dollar/Pound exchange rates.
On top of that, there has been a reduction in UK sales of around 30%. I can’t see any major reason for this, but consumer confidence, especially amongst our main demographic, dipped significantly over the latter half of 2025.
2. Paper
The paper we use has been discontinued by our paper merchants. When I found out, I immediately purchased all of their remaining stock to give me time to find an alternative. But that is no small task, and the best alternatives I have found so far are over 40% more expensive.
3. Diary Printing
Probably the final straw was the discontinuation of the subscription service we use to print all of our diaries and low-volume page types. For many years, we used an HP subscription service to get cost-effective printing, but now HP have decided, without reason or notice, to discontinue this service. Once our current supplies are used, it would, at best estimate, cost 300-400% more to print each page, which is obviously unsustainable.
4. Increased costs
Leather, paper, suede, metalwork, packaging, shipping costs - you name it, everything has been increasing in price. We have great suppliers, and some have tried their absolute best to keep price rises to a minimum, but many items we need are significantly more expensive than they were.
An old Finance Director of mine used to say that there were two ways to make a business profitable - sell more or spend less. Unfortunately, for William Hannah, we are now selling a lot less of things that are costing significantly more….
What Happens Now ?
You can still order as normal until we close, and I will make sure that every accepted order is shipped.
Please Note : In the spirit of William Hannah I will be doing my best to make everything as fair as possible for ALL customers. I will let you know if I need to ration any item in an order that you place, but please don’t try to get around the rules with multiple orders over a short period, as I will have to cancel and refund the additional orders.
Notebooks
With a compatible punch, you will be able to use your notebook for many years to come. As we move towards closure, I will give details of all of the compatible punches I am aware of, along with suggestions for paper/diary alternatives.
We will not be making any more off-the-shelf notebooks, so those available on the website will be the last William Hannah notebooks.
Over the coming months I will add more notebooks to the outlet store, at significantly reduced prices. If you would like access to the Outlet, e-mail me at outlet@williamhannah.com
We will still be able to make a few Bespoke notebooks, but leather stocks are very limited, so this will be on a strictly first-come, first-served basis.
Standard Pages
I have good stocks of all of the standard Lined, Dot, Grid and Plain pages, along with most of the Undated and Speciality Pages (Journaling, Habit, Seyes, etc), but some variants will inevitably start to go out of stock, and I’m not sure how long everything else will last. Therefore, I will initially allow a maximum order of 300 sheets of some page types (and 500 sheets in total for the order) to allow as many customers as possible to stock up.
In order to be able to track stock and prevent the website selling paper that we don’t have, it has been necessary to discontinue the 50 sheet packs of Lined, Dot, Grid and Plain paper, and only sell in 100 sheet packs.
As we approach closure, I may be able to remove the limits, but we will have to see how things go. I am also investigating whether I have enough paper left to get extra stocks of some of the paper types printed.
A6 line/dot/grid pages other than Grey, Kingfisher and Petrol have been discontinued to protect printer consumable stocks.
Dated/Diary Pages
6 Month Diary Packs can already be ordered with dates up to and including 2028, and I will, over the next few weeks, make all Full-Year Diary Packs available up to 2028 too. The A5 2026 UK Notable Dates Weekly Diary will be the last, but the A5 Generic Weekly Diary will be available until 2028.
In order to protect supplies of in-house printing consumables, I’m afraid that the Dated 100 Day Packs (standard and Timeslot) have been discontinued with immediate effect. Undated Versions of the 100 Day Packs are still be available as normal.
Accessories
We will not be making any more Wallets or Pen Bands, so as stocks sell out they will not be replaced. I have stock of Archiving Rings, but once they have run out I will not be ordering more, although I have added A5 and A6 Archiving Boxes as an alternative. Dividers and Bookmarks will be available until the end (although some colours might be discontinued), as will Front & Back Pages and Acetate Covers.
Pocket Notebooks
These should be available for some time, but as with everything, as the page types run out, the options available might become limited. Pocket Journals (Dated and Undated) have now been discontinued.
The Future
As I said above, I will add a section to the website in a few months which details compatible punches and alternative page type and diaries. It is currently my intention to leave a limited version of the website live with details of punches & page alternatives for one year after we have closed.
I will keep this announcement page updated with new information and an expected closure date, and will add an FAQ section to contain the most asked questions.
I am incredibly sad to be closing William Hannah, and I apologise in advance for the impact on you, our wonderful customers, but unfortunately, events outside of our control mean that continuing is just not a viable option.
Thank you, and Take Care
David