Arjowiggins Update

Jo Francis from Printweek reported the following yesterday...

Administrators from Interpath Advisory were appointed at ten Arjowiggins Group UK subsidiary businesses four weeks ago, including its Stoneywood paper mill near Aberdeen and the Chartham mill in Kent. 

The closing date for indicative offers in the sale of the businesses passed at the end of last week. A spokesperson for joint administrators Blair Nimmo and Alistair McAlinden told Printweek: “The initial sale of business deadline passed without identifying any immediately deliverable transactions to secure the sale of either UK mill as an operational facility.” 

While the joint administrators will continue to look for buyers, “this will now be alongside the site wind-down strategy and the sale of assets on a piecemeal basis”. The spokesperson added: “If any party has a genuine interest in acquiring both or either mill as an operational facility, then they should contact the joint administrators immediately.” 

Unite Scotland regional industrial officer Shauna Wright said she was saddened at the situation.

Arjowiggins swatches

You can read the full article here: https://www.printweek.com/news/article/end-of-the-line-looms-for-arjowiggins-mills

Arjowiggins Mills go into adminstration

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-63001007

There is very sad news that the Arjowiggins paper mills in the UK have been placed into administration. There are two paper mills involved employing over 460 people, the mills are in Stoneywood (near Aberdeen) and Chartham in Kent. The same Arjowiggins mills were last in administration in 2019 and the mills in France were either closed or sold but these two UK mills were bought by the management in a deal which was backed to the tune of £7million by Scottish Enterprise. The group also has overseas subsidiaries include the Guarro Casas mill in Spain, and Quzhou mill in China, neither of which is included in the insolvency proceedings ( ...which is a bit strange!)

https://www.printweek.com/news/article/administrators-take-charge-at-historic-arjo-mills

Arjowiggins manufacture many of the brands that readers of this blog will be familiar with including the Curious Collection, Keaykolour, Popset, Conqueror, Rives, which are shown in their lavish swatchbooks (design by North)...

As a result of this situation there may well be shortages for some of these papers. At Fenner Paper, we are increasing our stockholding, especially of our Stardream range (which is a competitor product to Curious Metallics) our Zeta range of premium business stationery paper, our Colorset text and cover coloured paper range and of course our Spectral transparent paper range.

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.09.2022  

Ukraine - Make a difference NOW!

I'm sure most of us working in the graphic arts industry, whether a designer, printer or paperperson have wondered if there is anything positive that we can do to help with the Ukrainian-Russian war ...well now there is!

An article appeared in PrintWeek yesterday which highlights a global paper manufacturer who is still producing paper in Russia. The company is called Mondi and are one of the largest paper and packaging companies in the world with manufacturing facilities and offices all around the world including facilities in Russia which employ 5,300 people.

In my opinion we should all be putting Mondi under pressure to suspend production in Russia. It is only by large corporates like Mondi (turnover £5.5 Billion!) exerting pressure such as this on the  Russian Government that could make a difference. It will affect the Russian economy and also get more people in Russia talking about the situation.

I have been racking my brains as to any contribution that I can make to this struggle and here (thanks to PrintWeek) there is something that all of us in the graphic arts can do!

Firstly, please email the CEO and Chairman of the Mondi Group (who I believe are both based in their Surrey headquarters) 

CEO is: andrew.king@mondigroup.com 

Chairman is: philip.yea@mondigroup.com

Jenny Hampshire is the Company Secretary and is listed as the Governance contact: jenny.hampshire@mondigroup.com

https://www.mondigroup.com/en/

Please email these people - get everyone you know to email them asking them "as a global leader in paper and packaging we ask you to demonstrate real leadership and suspend production at your sites in Russia" Flood their email boxes - PLEASE

Please use twitter, facebook, instagram and whatever social media you can to get the message across.

Secondly you can boycott Mondi products. Stop buying, specifying or using any Mondi products until they suspend their activities in Russia. In printing/graphics you may be familiar with their brands Color Copy, Nautilus Recycled and Pergraphica. Color Copy is the largest brand used in offices and copy shops and seen everywhere.

If you are a printer - tell your paper merchant you won't be buying a Mondi product until they have suspended operations in Russia. If you are a designer or project manager, make sure you don't specify any of their products. If you are in packaging, make sure that packaging is not being supplied by Mondi. Antalis is one of the large Mondi distributors in the UK.

This is something we can all do which might just help a bit - it won't take much time to do ...and if you don't think you've got time, just imagine you've heard gunfire outside your window - that's what it's like for those poor people in Ukraine right now, so spend 5 minutes of your time and send some emails - it might just make a difference.

You can read the story in PrintWeek here: https://www.printweek.com/news/article/mondi-updates-on-ukraine-russia

Please note: I have nothing against Mondi. This is not personal. We have worked with Mondi in the past and they are a very nice company to work with - but they are in the situation where they can make a difference, so we must tell them!

UPDATE on 4th March - article in The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c1855f14-9afd-11ec-8194-a993851c15ba?shareToken=84ac5bf545ddd88bda72c70ddc58cda3

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.03.2022

PS - for comparison, there is another global paper company called StoraEnso (interestingly some people consider Stora Enso to be the oldest limited liability company in the world having been incorporated in 1288!). Stora Enso is stopping all production and sales in Russia until further notice due to the ongoing invasion in Ukraine. Good for them! You can read more HERE

British Book Design & Production Awards 2019

Last week,  I was lucky enough to be at the British Book Design and Production Awards which is hosted and run by the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF) at the Landmark Hotel in  Marylebone. A very lavish and swish occasion.

I was kindly invited by Fenton Smith and Bonnie Lo from London print company BOSS, who were shortlisted for a number of awards.

 

On arrival, the nominated entries were all out on display and it was a truly wonderful array of books and catalogues. 

 ...a gathering of over 200 people from the world of publishing, print and design - and a few paper people in there as well! Here I am with my industry colleague, Charlotte Harvey from Antalis.

Once seated in the grand dining room, the evening was opened by Charles Jarrold, Chief Executive of the BPIF...

It was particularly lovely that a project which I was involved with won the category for "Limited Edition & Fine Binding" The project is titled "Paper Dolls" by artist Hormazd Nariewella. It is designed by Ornan Rotem  and published by Concentric Editions and Sylph Editions and it was beautifully printed by Boss Print on our Gardapat 13, Kiara 135gsm 

 ...and here is the team that made the book possible, collecting the award on stage, collecting the award from the compere Konnie Huq.

 Here is a sneak preview of the book (which I write about another time)…

Here is Bonnie from Boss with the artist Hormazd Nariewella:

Boss went on to win a further three awards, including the grand finale award "Best British Book" for North Northwest designed by Les Welch, pictured below with Fenton Smith from Boss:

Congratulation to all the finalists and award winners. You can read more about the entries and the winners here: https://www.britishbookawards.org/winners-2019/

It was a great evening - good company and food and my thanks go to Boss Print for inviting me and it was great meeting up with many other old friends on the table too.

https://www.bossprint.com/

https://www.britishbookawards.org/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.11.2019

ArjoWiggins - news update

Back in January I wrote about the situation at ArjoWiggins, which had placed five of it's manufacturing mills into administration. There are three paper mills in France employing over 900 people and two mills in the UK plus other subsidiaries employing over 600 people and I wrote about the situation in the beginning of the year here.

Yesterday, there was a ruling by the court in France, who had the final decision on the offers that had been made by the various interested parties interested in buying the business or parts of the business.

Unfortunately the outcome is far from positive. The largest mill in Bessé-sur-Braye (Sarthe), which employs over 550 employees is to be closed. The various offers and recovery plans were unable to raise the necessary capital (15 million Euros was needed) and therefore must now close. Amongst others, the mill makes Cocoon, Cyclus, Maine, Satimat and Chromomat.

The Greenfield recycled pulp mill (Château-Thierry) has been sold to the German tissue producer Wepa and apparently all 75 jobs are to be saved.

The French court approved the plan for the takeover of the Le Bourray mill, located in Saint-Mars-la-Brière, by a local company CGMP which is a manufacturer of towels, tablecloths, paper rolls and is a long time customer of the mill. The good news is that they will retain over 100 of the original 260 employees, however the mill will cease production of all graphical papers which also includes part of the Cyclus range.

So will this mean the end of Cyclus? In terms of the manufacturing, the mills are closing, so that is that; but the chances are that some company will buy the Cyclus brand and keep it on the market. In fact Cyclus has only been made at these French mills since 2012! Cyclus was originally conceived in the mid 1990's at a Danish paper mill called Dalum, which was bought by ArjoWiggins in 2007 and subsequently closed by them after transferring production to their mills in France with the loss of 260 Danish jobs, which I wrote about here.

This recent news shows what a bad state the paper manufacturing world is in. The combination of decreasing demand and higher energy and raw material costs including both pulp and chemicals means that all manufacturers are having a rough time.

So what of ArjoWiggins Creative Papers in the UK with paper mills at Stoneywood (Scotland) and Chartham (Kent)? Apparently the administrators are conducting due diligence with a "preferred bidder" however it is worth remembering that this was the case with the French mills up to last week. Stoneywood makes ranges such as Keaycolour, Curious, Olin, Popset, Conqueror etc and Chartham makes translucent (tracing paper). I can't make a guess as to whether the mills will survive; certainly it is a matter of record that a multi million pound investment is needed for a new power plant at the Stoneywood mill which has just under 500 employees. ArjoWiggins also owns a mill in Quzhou (China) where they make the same tracing paper products (reputedly much cheaper) so although the brands certainly have value, who knows if the banks will support a bidder looking to buy these mills.

Antalis is a separate listed company but a majority shareholding is held by Sequana (the holding company which own ArjoWiggins). However on 21st March, Sequana filed for bankruptcy to protect themselves and to give them time to "restructure" the Antalis shareholding (this means selling shares to anyone else other than Sequana). How will this go? Given the fact that it was only in 2017 that Antalis had to withdraw their 'junk bond' offering to the market due to lack on interest, so maybe things don't look so good. David Hunter (MD of Antalis) has been making positive statements about the future of Antalis as you might expect.

You can read more following these links here...
https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1167297/largest-french-arjo-mill-to-liquidate-as-two-more-sold-on
https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1167209/arjo-admin-reports-reveal-full-scope-of-debt
https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1167220/antalis-md-speaks-out-on-sequana-arjo-situation
With thanks to Printweek.

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.03.2019

ArjoWiggins Paper Mills go into Administration

There is very sad news that ArjoWiggins, part of the Creative Papers division of parent company Sequana has placed all of it's manufacturing mills into administration. There are three paper mills in France employing over 900 people and two mills in the UK plus other subsidiaries employing over 600 people.

It shows what a bad state the paper manufacturing world is in. The combination of decreasing demand and higher energy and raw material costs including both pulp and chemicals means that all manufacturers are having a rough time. If a buyer or buyers for the individual mills are not found, then the mills may be closed down.

Antalis is a separate listed company but a majority shareholding is held by Sequana. At present, Antalis is unaffected, although they are the exclusive UK stockists of many of those brands made by the ArjoWiggins mills, including Curious, Cyclus, Olin, Keaykolour, Popset etc. (all are registered trademarks of ArjoWiggins Fine Papers).

As a result of this situation there may well be shortages for some of these papers. At Fenner Paper, we are increasing our stockholding, especially of our Stardream range (which is a competitor product to Curious Metallics) and our Colorset text and cover range.

If you would like to read more about the current situation, here are some links:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-6594037/Hundreds-jobs-risk-paper-owner-enters-administration.html

https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1166595/arjowiggins-uk-businesses-enter-administration

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.01.2019

Daily Observations

Last week, I was invited to a private view for photographer Mark Sanders at Protein Studios in EC2. Curated by Studio Small, the occasion also celebrated their tenth birthday. Daily Observations is an exhibition drawn from images from the daily diary of Mark Sanders, which has been compressed to just 45 images for this show. 

 

Many of the actual diaries are out on display in cases.

Hard to believe that it was ten years ago that David Hitner and Guy Marshall joined forces to start their own studio and this was a great way to celebrate.   

...and of course I must mention one of the sponsors, which was another paper company! Antalis generously donated the paper for the 48pp exhibition publication (below), but sadly no one from Antalis turned up!

The book has been beautifully printed by Team Impression in Leeds and has been finished in true notebook style with an embossed cover, round corners, section sewing and pasted end papers. The superb finishing is by Diamond Print Services.

http://marksanders.co.uk/
http://www.studiosmall.com/
http://www.team-impression.com/
http://darling-creative.com/mark-sanders-3/

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.07.2015

The Creative Papers Blog - Archive

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the short lived Creative Papers blog written by 'The Creative Paper Expert' at Antalis McNaughton: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/blog-by-creative-paper-expert.html

 

Strangely enough, shortly after my post, the blog site was taken down and it was erased from history!

Fortunately, an archive copy of the blog has now appeared on the following link, so it's contents can now be enjoyed forever:

http://creativepapersblogarchive.blogspot.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.09.2012

Blog by The Creative Paper Expert!

Most followers of this blog know that I try to keep keep my posts positive,  interesting,  paper related and occasionally light hearted! ...and rarely do I slag things off.  However I have to share with you something that both amused and frustrated me at the same time!

 

Last summer (2011) a follower of this blog sent me a link to the new Antalis McNaughton "Creative Papers" blog. On reading it, I felt it was clearly an attempt to create a blog along similar lines to this one. Although it is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I find it frustrating when a multi BILLION pound global corporation (Antalis turnover £480 million and they are part of Sequana which turnover €3.9 billion!) follows the trend of a small little company like us rather than doing something new and setting their own trend.

  

http://antalisblogcreativepapers.oegen.co.uk/

As it turns out, I should have had no concerns whatsoever. It started on 3rd June 2011 and the last post was dated 2nd November 2011 with a total of 9 posts!

...and the most hilarious thing of all is that it wasn't written by a named individual, it's written by the "Creative Paper Expert" - not even I would try and aspire to that job title! 
 

"Welcome to the Creative Papers blog from Antalis McNaughton, the home of everything that is new, innovative, interesting and creative in the world of paper. Keep posted for ideas, thoughts, advice and suggestions from the experts in print and paper" ...but obviously nothing's happening in 2012!
Do have a look: http://antalisblogcreativepapers.oegen.co.uk/
Please note this link doesn't work anymore - see the update below

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.09.2012

PS - an update 20.09.2012

After writing the above post about 'The Creative Paper Expert' and the above mentioned blog, the blog site was taken down and it's been erased from history! Fortunately, an archive copy of the blog has now appeared on the following link, so it's contents can now be enjoyed forever:

http://creativepapersblogarchive.blogspot.co.uk/