PAPERWATCH: Paper Side of Graph Expo

A limited number of booths at Graph Expo were filled by paper mills: Boise, Finch (its larger formats tuned for the bigger HP Indigo 5500) and Mohawk (its new Via digital promotion shown here). Paper was also present as a critical consumable through other supply-chain players: in specialized areas (Wide Format Pavilion, converted for inkjet printers; Mailing & Fulfillment Pavilion, where Mead WestVaco Envelope appeared).

Mega-players like xpedx, IP's channel giant with more than $4.1 billion in paper revenue, was highly visible with its integrated range of production-related offerings. Others, New Page, Verso and Sappi, for example, showed as key sources at press suppliers.

Paper channels are greatly swayed by two marketing streams: sustainability, to which Mohawk has strongly hitched its marketing message; and the rise of digital print. As a major OEM paper provisioner, Xerox has combined the appeal of green print with the soaring trend to digital print, debuting its mechanically pulped High Yield paper that combines opacity with reduced weight.

Double digit adoption rates for digital look to continue, reaching 30% of output by 2015, according to Graph Expo Executive Outlook presenters. Most growth will be at the expense of offset, expected to drop to 32% (from today's 42%) of production. As the geographic footprint for digital paper distribution grows, hardware manufacturers bundling it with printers (and tieing it to warranties) have an advantage. Benefiting too are merchant channels with pervasive infrastructures, like Unisource, or xpedx with 105 warehouses, 135 stores and 1,200 trucks.

On the upswing are papers compatible with digital engines and offset, for hybrid efforts that run through both machines in the course of many projects. High-speed inkjet remains papermakers' biggest volume target; toner-produced digital runs, or offset jobs personalized with toner-based engines, are the biggest uses today.

Improved mid-range digital printers are giving rise to a resurging inplant market. “High quality professional printing is more accessible,” notes Vince Phelan, Boise Paper marketing director. “All you really need is great office equipment and great paper.” Boise released its HD:P Presentation Laser & Cover at Graph Expo in “big folio” formats: 17×11´´, 18×12´´, and 20.5×14.33´´ from multipurpose to gloss and 100% recycled content grades.

“In our own marketing campaigns,” says Phelan, “we would send jobs to litho printing, print thousands of pieces, warehouse them and distribute to all reps. Today, the [digital] process is simpler, cheaper and at a quality that rivals litho.”