Premium Paper Now a Service Industry

The text, writing and cover paper business continues to change with increasingly narrow applications, driven by digital printing technologies and other short-run demand. Service has been a big focus in this transition to smaller consumption. Most producers can now ship in one to three days. Finch, Mohawk, Domtar, Neenah and others can ship from some urban point and reach anywhere in a day.

Though suppliers love full truck-load orders, quantities are more typically cartons or pallet-sized, often mixed to assemble a mailing campaign. This type of ordering can be done over the phone or at many websites. (The Internet is now the resource for paper quality information and even stocking.) Paper companies must position stock either in their own warehouse or with dedicated merchants/distributors/paper stores to fill overnight requests.

Interestingly, the uncoated premium paper market is still strong, says Mohawk senior marketing VP Craig Slemp. “We found that business drives the letterhead market—and there are more businesses with more opportunities than ever before.” Slemp's studies found 650,000 newly registered U.S. businesses this year, growing at a 6% clip.

Each needs corporate letterhead. “Designers we surveyed are getting requests for more applications, like Powerpoint decks, note cards and invitations, employee communications and even variable-data direct mail.” Mohawk's studies also found that paper specification is very important: over 70% of designers say quality was the top request.

With the acquisition of IP's lines, Mohawk is now the largest producer of premium uncoated paper. At the On Demand Show in May, it re-launched the Strathmore brand, one of the nation's oldest and most recognized. Its product mix has been a major focus in research and production, as managers fill out the line to include items not always associated with Strathmore, extending it to attract more conscientious buyers. Mohawk intends to re-launch Britehue and Via this year and Beckett in 2007.

Finch Paper is also working on product mix but with a pricing edge. Given that the mill produces its own pulp, a volatile commodity lately, Finch has spent millions re-tooling operations to streamline a broad product mix of premium papers.

“We are implementing a three-pronged approach: end users, merchants/paper stores and designers,” says Rob DeLuke, Finch's graphic resources manager. The mill has done extensive work on brightness, smoothness, formation and product features such as surface finish and colors to provide buyers with the complete palette, “at Finch Paper price points,” says DeLuke.

Finch has also broadened its Digital Paper grades to specific segments, like color copying, laser, HP Indigo and extensions of the Opaque line to fit short-run applications.