10 years on...

Many of you reading this blog may never have even heard of the companies in this article - Robert Horne, Howard Smith Paper, PaperCo, which were all laterly under the Paperlinx banner.

It was exactly ten years ago today that the Paperlinx group companies were placed in administration and I wrote about it on this blog HERE 

It was a sad day for our industry and for the near one thousand staff working in the UK for the group. Although this may have been a chronically mismanaged company, it highlighted the direction of travel for the paper and printing industry...

Paperlinx was an Australian company which bought up three very sucessful and profitable companies and ran the whole thing into the ground.

You can read more about the history on the Printweek website:
http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1150685/breaking-deloitte-appointed-at-paperlinx-uk-most-branches-closed

Regular readers of this blog may well remember that I had a bit of a 'run in' with Paperlinx and their solicitors after posting a hyperlink (with allegedly defamatory remarks) when I wrote about Toby Marchant's 'golden goodbye' departure:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/toby-marchant-exits-paperlinx.html
Sadly, Graham Critchley, who ran the website exposing the shananagins at Paperlinx (and who's blog I linked to) passed away in January 2014. The financial troubles at Paperlinx continued to persist.

More history here:
http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1150698/merchants-move-to-plug-paperlinx-gap https://www.printweek.com/content/news/paperlinx-debts-revealed/

https://www.printweek.com/content/news/former-paperlinx-business-subsumed-into-japanese-giant/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.04.2025

New ZANDERS ZETA swatch

The ZANDERS ZETA range should need no introduction - it is Europe's market leading paper for business. As regular readers of this blog will know, following the abrupt closure of the PaperlinX group (Robert Horne, Howard Smith and PaperCo) earlier this year, Fenner Paper took over UK distribution for the Zanders Zeta range.

 

We now have a lovely new swatch (230mm square) which shows the entire mill range:

5 COLOURS - 5 SURFACES - 7 WEIGHTS

 

If you would like one of the new swatches, please email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

The below picture shows the swatch open which has colour and embossing chips together with a waterfall of papers in each of the weights...

Like most prestigious letterhead papers, there is a watermark in the paper (see below), which in the case of ZETA is rather subtle. It is worth mentioning that with the ZETA range, most items are also available un-watermarked.

Zeta watermark in the Zeta Hammer Embossed finish

Below image shows the different shades and substances in the range.

There are five surface finishes in the range including Smooth and Wove and three embossed finishes in Hammer, Linen and Micro. The range encompasses whites and light shades in a wide variety of sizes and weights as well as matching envelopes in DL, C5 and C4.

ZETA can be printed using offset litho, hot foil blocking, engraving, thermography and is guaranteed up to 150gsm for laser printing, colour copying and inkjet printing.

These fine papers are manufactured at the Reflex Paper mill in the town of Düren in Germany, which was founded in 1857 and the mill also produces transparent papers, label papers and artists papers. All ZETA products are made from Chlorine Free pulp (ECF) and carry the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification

If you would like one of the new swatches, please email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

 

http://www.zetapaper.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.10.2015

Zanders Zeta now stocked by Fenner Paper

For most of you the Zanders Zeta range will need no introduction, it's Europe's market leading paper for business. Unfortunately with the abrupt closure of the Paperlinx group (Robert Horne, Howard Smith and PaperCo) there was no UK stockist - follow the link for my previous post about Paperlinx: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/sad-demise-of-paperlinx-in-uk.html. 

As a result of their sad demise, the mill needed a distributor for this range in the UK which has been extensively marketed over the years ...and that's where Fenner Paper comes in!

The good news is that we taken on a broad range of Zeta papers into stock, including the popular Zeta Hammer and Linen embossed finishes. Yesterday the first large stock consignment arrived by trailer, as you can see from the picture below: 

Zanders Zeta is produced by the Reflex Paper mill in Düren, Germany which was founded in 1857. The mill also produces transparent papers, label papers and artists papers.

You can read more about the new arrangement in Printweek:

http://www.printweek.com/print-week/product-news/1150950/fenner-paper-now-exclusive-uk-stockist-of-zanders-zeta

You can see the current range here: http://www.zetapaper.co.uk/

BUT...
please don't throw away your old Zeta swatches as currently we don't have any available. We'll distribute new swatches when they are produced but in the meantime, at least you know where to come to get the product (in fact if you have a moment why don't you grab the Zeta swatch off the shelf and write Fenner Paper on the back - it might save you time and trouble at a later date!

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.04.2014

Sad demise of Paperlinx in the UK

Yesterday it was announced that the Paperlinx group companies were placed in administration (in common parlance that means gone bust). Staff have been sent home and the phones are not being answered. This is not an April fool joke.

Paperlinx is the Australian company which owns three UK paper merchants that you will be familiar with: Robert Horne, Howard Smith and The Paper Co.

You can read more about it on the Printweek website:
http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1150685/breaking-deloitte-appointed-at-paperlinx-uk-most-branches-closed

Regular readers of this blog may well remember that I had a bit of a 'run in' with Paperlinx and their solicitors after posting a hyperlink (with allegedly defamatory remarks) when I wrote about Toby Marchant's 'golden goodbye' departure:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/toby-marchant-exits-paperlinx.html
Sadly, Graham Critchley, who ran the website exposing the shananagins at Paperlinx (and who's blog I linked to) passed away in January 2014. The financial troubles at Paperlinx have persisted resulting in this rather final and drastic action for the UK division.

It is very sad for our industry and for the near one thousand staff working in the UK for the group. Although this may have been a chronically mismanaged company, it sadly highlights the bad state that the paper and printing industry is in. Definitely no laughing matter here.

http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1150698/merchants-move-to-plug-paperlinx-gap

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.04.2015

Shock, horror ...it's finally happened!

 Well to most people it was always obvious and to some inevitable, but on Friday, the three companies which makes up the UK paper merchanting interests of the Australian, loss making conglomerate Paperlinx, started answering their phones using their new name.

Robert Horne, Howard Smith and Paperco will now be known as PaperlinX (surprise, surprise!)

...from this

to this....

You can read more about it here:

http://www.printweek.com/bulletin/printweekdailybulletin/article/1181216/paperlinx-rebrands-howard-smith-robert-horne-paperco/

 

This is actually a great shame for the paper industry and reflects the rather sad (and bad) state of the industry overall. I've written about it before on this blog:

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/toby-marchant-exits-paperlinx.html

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2012/05/stardream-answering-your-questions.html

...including my legal "shot across the bows" from Paperlinx:

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2012/10/paperlinx-gets-stroppy.html

 



Posted by Justin Hobson 07.05.2013