Italian paper maker Fedrigoni is the proof that the paper industry is not on its knees, that there is a future amid the news of machine and mill closures, the pressure from well meaning environmental groups, and the growth of digital communications. First of all Fedrigoni is not and has never been a maker of high volume papers for gravure or heatset web offset printing. These are the sectors consuming vast quantities of low margin papers and which are now attempting to cut capacity to match the fall in demand. Fedrigoni is, however, at the forefront of the fight against single-use plastics, innovating with wood fibre to develop more sustainable alternatives, and while it can do little against the tide of digital communications, it can enhance the quality, experience and impact of printed communications.
In short Fedrigoni is not in the mass market for paper. It is in the market for those wanting papers that add a little finesse to a print job, or papers that go beyond the expectations of a sheet of cellulose fibre, filler and a coating. The company’s mantra, Elevating Creativity, is a succinct way of describing what it aims to do and what its customers are engaged in. If you want to move away from standard white papers: offset, coated, silks: then Fedrigoni is the go to company.
And both its financial backers and management believe that after flirting with financial disaster, Fedrigoni is on the right track. It is about being able to offer a paper that delivers creativity, sustainability and sits with the values of the brand specifying the paper. This is about both creativity and the look and feel of the paper and board.
“We believe that great design combined with great print and great paper together can bring something that is more than the sum of the three parts,” says Ian Braithwaite. He is commercial director of the UK end of the Italian papermaker’s business, selling to brands, agencies and printers with a team that both sells direct and through merchants.
It has a warehouse in Northampton where there are 4,500 pallet slots amounting to 24,500 tonnes of paper in stock. This extends across the range, including now flat sheets of self adhesive labels matching the branded papers and extensions to the range of boards carried. Customers get a consistent product across their applications.
The carbon impact can be offset via CarbonCo and its work with the World Land Trust. “We see reducing carbon emissions as a company goal and if you work with luxury brands the steps they are taking to being more sustainable. As a group we want to reduce CO2 by 30% by 2030,” he says.
Braithwaite’s focuses is on the premium end of the market, the more so following the hiatus of the lockdown years and with the move away from mass market commodity printed products. If paper choice was perhaps a lesser consideration a decade ago, it really matters now.
That is because paper is an organic recyclable and renewable product that can replace single-use plastics in many instances. Sustainability is a major part of the future for the expanding Fedrigoni group. Fedrigoni Labels is the major part of the group, responsible for 59% of sales currently and thanks to acquisitions has become one of the world’s top three label stock suppliers, especially for wine and spirits labels. Fedrigoni’s core paper brands are now available as sheeted label stock to continue the paper used for promotion and packaging to the product itself.
When Bain Capital Partners began its investment in Fedrigoni in 2018, consolidation through acquisition was a main target. Since then Fedrigoni has added Ritrama and Accucote to the fold along with smaller deals and has created Fedrigoni Labels as the brand to accommodate these. The speciality paper side has not been ignored with deals to acquire Cordonens, ArjoWiggins’ operations in China and Grenoble completed. Its most recent acquisition of Tageos brings RFID into the group with potential applications in security, labels and in packaging. Earlier last year it had acquired Unifoil a supplier from Turkey of vinyl films for vehicle wrapping. There is also a link with Mohawk Paper in the US, currently as a manufacturing and distribution arrangement, which has deepened recently.
At heart is a paper making business that was formed in Verona in 1888. It still has a mill in the city, one of nine paper production sites in Italy with one each in France and Spain. Paper and specialist papers are the heart of the business and have been so since the business was formed. The products are numerous, a real ‘57 varieties’ mix of different coated, silk and uncoated grades, tints and whites, smooth and textured products. Only Fedrigoni claims 2,500 products across the ranges, rather more than a purveyor of baked beans.
“It is unusual to have a mill produce this variety of papers,” says Braithwaite. This is without the bespoke makings that the business is capable of and which will become more significant for luxury packaging. “We have pushed a lot further into bespoke paper manufacturing,” he says. “There is more emphasis on innovation and more about the technical aspects of a paper. We will sit down with the customer and talk about what we can do to help that customer through the choice of a paper, whether part of the portfolio or something we make specifically.”
As conversations continue with brands wanting to find ways to eliminate, or at least minimise, the impact they have on the environment, Fedrigoni can stretch out a helping hand. It has a joint venture company with Tecnoform, an Italian development company which uses fibre to replace plastic for the inlay trays that hold a bottle of perfume for example. This has featured in Metamorphosis, the second collection of papers under the Materia Viva name. This has focused on papers with performance features that are a direct replacement for plastics. The first Materia Viva collection batched the papers with a recycled content, from a minor proportion to 100% recycled that it produces. The second collection takes that sustainability a step further. “People want to move away from plastic and want to know what their alternatives are,” he says.
These include papers that are scratch proof, stain proof, water resistant, metallic and with other properties that are more usually associated with plastics, including what would have been thermoformed plastics using Eclose, a cellulose base material that can replace inner trays that would otherwise be made from a thermoformed plastic. “We have the ability to adapt that technology quite quickly to suit demands for inner packaging from cosmetics and perfume brands,” says Braithwaite.
“We have a stretchable paper, for example, which replaces the plastic used for presenting socks on a shop’s shelf. There is a paper that is waterproof and used in horticulture for plant labels as an alternative to plastic. Another is a wipe clean paper that is intended for use in the hospitality sector.
“We develop the products with a purpose in mind, but these materials can also open creative paths for designers, agencies and printers as they come to understand the technology. We may present a grade and say that this paper is best used for an application over here, but then ask what more can you do with it.
“We have grown on the back of the success of these printers that have challenged the way that they work. These are the inspirational printers that are looking for new ways to create a market niche and something that they can bring to their clients. That in turn creates loyalty for us and for them.”
It is not all luxury for luxury’s sake. Many of Fedrigoni’s papers are eminently usable for both litho and digital printers looking for something a little different than the bulk commodity grades perhaps.
Arena was introduced as a family of uncoated papers in 2019 for publication work and including three different finishes and four shades. It scores by being considered a more natural paper than a normal coated and by offering good lift and runability. It sits alongside the established Arcoset brand, Sirio, Freelife, Symbol and X-Per as the better known papers.
Increasingly the focus for Fedrigoni is on luxury and premium packaging. If a brand is using Fedrigoni paper for its marketing material, using the same supplier for packaging is logical. It chimes with the times in that brands are using packaging to differentiate themselves and to convey the luxury message. It also marks a swing from on foot to online shopping, where influencer marketing and the unboxing video have risen to prominence.
What was once a private experience on receipt of a special gift is now very much a public display as influencers with thousands of followers on Instagram or TikTok describe the impact of unwrapping whatever the latest courier has delivered.
This is a logical development says Braithwaite. “Coming out of the pandemic, companies have had to represent themselves differently. They can’t just go back to the market as it was before. The market has changed and businesses need to show that they have moved with the times. The market is now far more driven by digital channels which has leads to far more online shopping.
“This means that the first touch point that many luxury brands have with customers is no longer in store, but is when the product is delivered and the consumer experiences the touch point of the packaging.”
Thus papers that emphasise tactility and appeal to touch, Old Mill and Tintoretto are grades that Braithwaite mentions, come to the fore as offering something different to a smooth board finish that is standard for many cartons and boxes. Smooth SBS board is also available, Fedrigoni expanding its Symbol family to include Symbol Pack with bright White and White shades. He says: “We decided that there should be both Premium White and White finishes, so if you start talking about Premium White and it is too bright, White is already there and if you find that White is not bright enough, there is Premium White and if the customer wants something that is a little more natural, more earthy, we have that too.”
And there are many other products in the tool box, some that can be enhanced through the recent acquisitions. There are security and label products that may benefit from the RFID and security applications expertise that comes through the former ArjoWiggins team in Grenoble. “We have the technologies and we think we know the applications, but through talking with creative printers, agencies and designers who understand the technologies they will come up with ideas and applications that we hadn’t seen before.
“We have grown on the back of the success of printers that will challenge us and the way that they work, that are looking for new ways of having a niche and something new that they can bring to clients.”
It means sitting down and engaging with clients on what they want to do, he explains, and perhaps taking that into bespoke makings of a paper to make the packaging really special. It’s a conversation about the technological aspects of a paper, in short sitting down with the customer and asking what is we can do to help you?
The answer from Fedrigoni is whatever you want to do. It is trying to create paper without limits.
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