From 1 February, Castleford-based Papico and Southampton-based HH Pegg made official a long-running informal relationship which will see the two companies offering each other’s portfolios to their respective clients.

It will allow their suppliers access to customers in the UK they had previously been unable to reach, while broadening the number of products available to the two agents’ clients.

Papico managing director Paul Johnston-Knight said: “We have been talking for a while about the different areas that we cover, both in terms of products and geography. HH Pegg is based in the south, while we are in the north and our client books have little overlap.

“We see this collaboration as a way to support each other as businesses while allowing the mills we work with to grow their sales in areas of the country where they might not have previously.

“There is a benefit to all stakeholders – clients get a fuller portfolio to choose from as we both become better one-stop-shops, while suppliers get a greater variety of customers.”

Johnston-Knight said that a key draw to working with HH Pegg for his company was HH Pegg’s representation of the Heinzel craft mill in Austria which has now doubled its capacity to enable merchants to better address demand for paper-based materials to replace plastic packaging.

Papico has eight members of staff, while HH Pegg is a one-man operation headed up by managing director Keith Spiers.