Case Study: Middleton Paper bespoke sheeting service

Middleton Paper is poised to meet the demand for bespoke paper sizes following the closure of LumiPaper’s Mendlesham plant.

With three Pasaban sheeters, as well as rewinding, guillotining and rewrapping facilities, the West Midlands company is well placed to offer alternative options for bespoke and standard sheet sizes with fast turnaround. Its versatile set-up enables Middleton Paper to sheet, from sizes as low as 300 x 310mm, up to large format 1850 x 2200mm.

Vision Paper and Board is the merchant division of Middleton Paper Group and is able to take full advantage of this extensive inhouse sheeting operation to provide their customers with bulk packed and ream wrapped options across a carefully curated range of coated and uncoated papers and boards.

Quartz Triple Coated Gloss and Silk, their long-standing brand produced at Burgo Ardennes mill, leads their coated paper range.  Managing director, Jason Middleton, said: “We have been working with Burgo for over 20 years and are pleased to be able to promote our Quartz range as a viable, permanent alternative to Lumi.  As we hold extensive stocks of cutter reels in our warehouse in Walsall, we are ideally placed to offer bespoke sizes to printers with faster turnaround times than can be achieved by paper mills from outside the UK.”

There are many advantages for printers buying bespoke sizes, not least the savings in waste and ultimate reduction in paper costs, which can be considerable over a period of time.

“In these uncertain times we are all looking for something we can depend on,” says Jason: “Quartz Gloss and Silk has been around for a long time and is now well established in the market and it will continue to be an important part of our offer.  The Middleton Group, of which we are a part, is over 60 years old and Middleton Paper has been trading independently since 1976, so we have a long and proud history of achievements and sustained growth.”

Holding the Quartz Triple range in cutter reels is essential to Vision Paper’s objective of being able to respond rapidly to customer requirements in a rapidly changing environment, especially now that LumiPaper is no longer an option for printers requiring bespoke sizes.

Vision Paper and Board sales manager, Simon Cartwright explained: “There have been so many changes to supply recently that it can be difficult to keep up: paper mills reducing capacity and switching production to other grades may make viable sense to them, but it can leave printers stuck, especially when they have become accustomed to a certain paper or service level.  We are available to help meet those requirements, and Quartz is an excellent and well-respected coated paper range from one of Europe’s premium producers. We don’t know what the future holds, and there is now fear of lengthy delays at UK ports from January 2021; our extensive UK stock of cutter reels ready for sheeting ensures we are prepared for any eventuality.”