Mondi announces Russia Exit

I have written on this blog before about the fact that Mondi was supporting the Russian economy and their war machine by continuing to manufacture paper in Russia. The good news is that Mondi has finally confirmed that it plans to divest its Russian operations because of the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Mondi has a substantial presence in Russia with a net asset value of nearly €700m (£600m), and have been reviewing options for their Russian operations since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

It's a tough decision but I think we can all appreciate it is the right thing to do. Well don to the Mondi board for making the right call.

You can read the full Printweek article here:

https://www.printweek.com/news/article/mondi-confirms-russian-exit

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.05.2022

Jobs from the past - Number 150

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by and this one is from 2012.

V&A Annual Review 2011/2012

Pieces of print like this don't come along every day! This is the beautiful 2011/2012 Annual Review published by the V&A.  The museum celebrated it's highest attendance ever, at 2.88 million! The report is divided into various sections combining the pictures and words about the collections and the life of the museum with a major section on the museum's Futureplan.

The cover is hot foil blocked in a white gloss pigmented foil on a Cool Grey 350gsm material from the well known, Hull based paper merchant!

With image reproduction being so important, it was essential that everything reproduced amazingly! The text chosen for the project is Omnia 150gsm because the print includes solid colours and images of exhibits - and it looks brilliant.

Click on images to enlarge

 

Click on images to enlarge

Size of the book is 265x200mm, portrait format, perfect bound. The 68pp text is printed in CMYK throughout - beautifully. Additionally, there are 4 tracing paper inserts as section dividers and an 8pp coloured section for the accounts.

Generation Press wrote about it on their blog and kindly supplied me with the images. They also showed the foiling die used for the cover - very nice to see...

Design is by Jo Glover. Photography is by David Short and the V&A photography studio.

Print, foiling and finishing is by Generation Press.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/

https://generationpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.05.2022

Printweek - Paper Supply Crisis

I have written before on this blog about the situation in the paper industry, about the shortages and rapid price increases.

A few weeks ago a very interesting article was written by Jo Francis for Printweek magazine covering the situation, which you can read here... 

https://www.printweek.com/briefing/article/navigating-the-paper-supply-crisis

A particularly interesting part of the article is an explanation of how in less than three years, the industry has lost nearly 6 million tonnes of paper & board production, listing the following mill closures and cuts in capacity:

Cuts to capacity – going, going gone – how nearly 6m tonnes per annum of paper production disappeared

Feb 19: Germany’s Scheufelen files for insolvency for the second time in two years. It had produced 140,000 tonnes of premium coated paper per year

Mar 19: Arjowiggins’ largest mill, Bessé-sur-Braye with capacity of 320,000tpa of recycled coated and uncoated papers goes into liquidation after parent Sequana went into administration

Mar 19: Lecta shuts down coated woodfree production on PM 8 (200,000tpa) at its Condat mill, with the intention of converting it to label and packaging papers

May 19: Stora Enso confirms exit from coated woodfree paper market, removing more than a million tonnes of capacity as a result. The 1.08m/tpa Oulu mill in Finland will be converted to packaging board

Feb 20: Sappi Europe says it will close 240,000tpa coated woodfree PM2 at its Stockstadt mill

July 20: UPM closes its Chapelle newsprint mill in France, which produced 240,000 tonnes of newsprint per year

Aug 20: UPM announces it will shut its Kaipola mill in Finland by the end of the year and decommission its three paper machines, an annual reduction of 450,000 tonnes of newsprint and 270,000 tonnes of graphic grades. It also puts a ‘for sale’ sign up at UK newsprint mill UPM Shotton 

Aug 20: SCA says it will exit the publication papers market

Feb 21: SCA makes its last reel of publication paper at its Ortviken paper mill (756,000tpa) where three paper machines were shuttered and the site switched to the production of chemically pre-treated thermo-mechanical pulp (CTMP)

April 21: Stora Enso plans to close its Veitsiluoto (790,000tpa woodfree uncoated paper) and Kvarnsveden (565,000tpa SC magazine paper) mills in Sweden, slashing annual capacity by 35% to 2.6m tonnes

May 21: Zanders Paper goes into liquidation. It had two paper machines and capacity to make 325,000tpa of high gloss, cast coated paper, label papers, and board

Jun 21: Stora Enso sells its 310,000tpa Sachsen newsprint mill in Germany. The new owners will convert it to make containerboard

Sep 21: Newsprint production ceases at 250,000tpa capacity UPM Shotton. The new owner is converting the mill to produce cardboard

An excellent piece of research by Jo Francis, thank you.I suggest you read the whole article online.

https://www.printweek.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.04.2022

Monocle Shop

Monocle is a premium mediabrand with print, audio and online elements, not to mention their ever expanding retail network and on-line business. The Monocle Shop is at street level in six cities - London, Zurich, Merano, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Toronto. The shop keeps everything from luggage and clothes to stationery and furniture.

This piece of promotional literature shows what is available at the shop. The finished size is 216x102mm, portrait and is a 16pp folded format folding out to a flat size of 402x432mm.

The above folds out to reveal the first spread below...

 ...and then folding out again, left and right.

Click on images to enlarge

 and then folding up to reveal the full spread below.

The whole publication is all printed offset litho on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm ...and it looks and feels absolutely gorgeous - it flops and folds in a delightful way when handling the publication as I hope these images demonstrate. The below image shows the way it folds.

The below image shows both sides.

 The print quality is superb as I hope the below image demonstrates.

Click on images to enlarge

Design is by Loi Xuan Ly at Monocle. The publication is printed offset litho, CMYK throughout. The excellent print is by Park Communications, who are based in East London,

https://monocle.com/shop/
https://www.parkcom.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.04.2022

Today is Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual event first held on April 22, 1970. It now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. Above all, Earth Day is the "people's day" for doing something to take care of the Earth. That "something" can be local, national or global. It can be a solo action or involve a crowd.

What better day for me to remind you about one of our range of recycled and environmentally friendly text and cover papers...

 

Creative Print is a range of 100% recycled, uncoated text and cover materials. 

The paper has an uncoated, natural surface and is produced on the "Rolls Royce" of papermaking machines - a twin wire machine which ensures even-sidedness which improves printability over other inferior products. The range is available in two shades, Diamond and Champagne and the weight range is 90, 120, 170, 210, 270 and 350gsm.

 

Creative Print is manufactured by Euler in Germany, which is part of the Koehler Paper Group. The range carries the "Blue Angel" certification. Introduced in 1978, the Blue Angel scheme is the oldest ecolabel in the world, and it covers some 10,000 products in some 80 product categories. After the introduction of Germany's Blue Angel in 1978 as the first worldwide environmental label, other European and non-European countries followed this example and introduced their own national and supra-regional environmental labels. The common goal of these labels is to inform consumers about environmentally friendly products thereby giving global support to product-related environmental protection - perfect for highlighting on Earth Day!

 If you would like a swatch of this range, just drop me an email Justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

 

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.04.2022

Olivia von Halle

Olivia von Halle is a British luxury nightwear brand that launched at London Fashion Week in September 2011. The brand can be found in nearly 100 stores in 20 countries including Harrods, Selfridges, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and online with Net-a-Porter.com.

Focusing on beautifully cut silk pyjamas in stunning exclusive prints, Olivia von Halle has quickly made a name for itself in the world of high-end nightwear. In 2013 the company was awarded the ‘Blue Butterfly Trust Mark’, which is given to brands and companies that have a positive impact on people and the planet.

This is the lookbook for the Spring Summer "Talisman Collection". The publication is sub A4 - 290x205mm, portrait. It is a 16pp self cover format printed on Omnia 150gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

Unlike many of the fashion lookbooks featured on this blog, which are printed offset litho, this has been digitally printed on an HP Indigo press. The colours are strong and punchy and the whole publication has a matt, tactile look and feel - in fact I can honestly say, every bit as good as litho!

Although Omnia was never originally developed for digital, we now keep it as a stock item with "sapphire treatment". This treatment is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (which are different to litho inks) work on the paper surface. The great thing is the job just doesn't look and feel like a digital job. Below is a detail shot showing the excellent fleshtone reproduction.

A nice touch is the use of the white wire for the saddle stitches

The self cover format means that it flows well with the pages turning nicely.

Graphic design is by Michael Knight, who runs his studio in East London called A New Mark. Print and finishing is by Gavin Martin.

http://oliviavonhalle.com/
http://www.anewmark.com/
https://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.04.2022

Tree Free - Bamboo Paper

Our friends at the Favini paper mill in Italy pioneered the use of alternative fibres. In the 1990's Maggie Philbin on BBC Tomorrow's World (...do you remember that?) introduced the original Favini ecological paper Alga Carta and the mill has continued development of other eco-products over the last thirty years.

Tree Free has been setting the standards for papermaking with zero impact on forestry for more than twenty years. Now with an improved recipe and a refreshed range that includes a new 380 gsm weight ideal for tags, cards and packaging, Tree Free uses 75% Bamboo Fibres with 25% cotton linters. Both are renewable annual crops which yield high quality fibres giving a natural tactile finish to the paper and excellent printability. 

To complete the story of sustainability, Tree Free is recyclable, biodegradable and made using EKOenergy from a hydro electric power station. Tree Free carries the FSC™ certification, even though like the name implies it has no impact on forests.

It is available in two shades, Bamboo Natural and Bamboo Cream. If you would like one of these lovely new swatches, please email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

https://www.favini.com/gs/en/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.04.2022