Not only is the deal good for Archant and for Palm Paper, but it is also good for the environment as the paper is made from 100% recycled paper fibre and it only has to travel a very short distance from the new paper plant in King’s Lynn to the printing presses in Norwich. The delivery lorries will even return with a full load of waste paper from Archant and others for recycling at Palm Paper, saving even more tonnes of carbon.
Palm Paper finished building the biggest newsprint machine in the world in King’s Lynn last year in a £400m investment.
Archant Print, based at Thorpe near Norwich, was the very first customer of the new plant in a deal signed by Archant chief executive, Adrian Jeakings (pictured on the right), and Palm Paper CEO, Dr Wolfgang Palm (pictured on the left), in Norwich.
Palm Paper will now be used to produce all Archant’s four daily and 60 weekly newspaper titles across the country which are printed in Norwich.
Adrian Jeakings said: “We are developing a strong relationship with another local company which we hope will prosper in the future. It represents a huge vote of confidence in the local economy. The cultures of the two companies are very closely aligned as both are independent family-owned businesses.
“The deal is also good news for the environment and is part of a wider programme of sustainability within Archant.”
Archant Print MD, Nick Schiller, who helped to negotiate the deal, said: “We were involved in the King’s Lynn paper plant project from its inception and took the first saleable paper for our presses.
“There are considerable benefits to the deal as it gives us a very high quality sheet and, with a consistent supply from one source, we can optimize our production processes for it.
“We are taking all of our newsprint from Palm this year. It means that we will use 100% recycled paper and have an arrangement for the delivery lorries to take recycled paper back to Palm with the help of waste paper merchant MW White.”
Palm Paper’s King’s Lynn plant is the most modern in Europe and is capable of producing 400,000 tonnes of the 1.6m tonnes of newsprint used every year in the UK. Production began in August 2009 and represents the first major UK investment in the paper industry in the last decade.
Derek Harman, Palm Paper’s Managing Director Business & Administration, said: “One of the reasons for the investment in the production facility in the UK was to reduce transportation for environmental and economic reasons. We are therefore delighted that the Archant Print centre in Norwich has found the Lynn PM7 newsprint to be of such outstanding quality to entrust us with this exclusive agreement.
“We look forward to extending the excellent relationship we have developed with Archant over many years and to working with MW White to complete the circle by returning the fibre to our mill for reprocessing.”
Paul White, MD of MW White, said: “The new arrangement makes lots of environmental sense. Previously some of our recycled paper went as far as China or Indonesia. Now we deliver up to 500 tonnes of recycled paper to Palm Paper in King’s Lynn every week, including lots of used EDPs and other Archant papers collected from Norfolk and Waveney.”
