Prism Papyrus, the exclusive distributor for Italy-based Fedrigoni of Italy, Europe's leading special papers manufacturer conducted a series of roadshows in Chennai, Cochin and Delhi and Mumbai with awareness presentations on "creative paper - add value to your design and print".

These presentations were made by Fedrigoni's export manager Simon Shenton and export area manager for India and Middle East Andrea Muddolon. Ispira and Xper ranges were shown in printed and finished samples with special applications and effects.

I A Patel, director and CEO for Indian operations at Prism Papyrus, said: "The current growth of specialty paper in India is pegged at 8% per year. Though there is no exact figure, but India's present consumption of speciality paper ranges between 3,000 to 6,000 tons, which is all set to rise to 10,000 tons in next five years. The print buyers are fuelling the demand for specialty paper for the quality jobs with quality conscious clients."

According to the Fedrigoni, 99% of all Fedrigoni products are FSC certified and therefore there are no environmental issues.

Shenton said: "We have a large number of corporate clients like HSBC, Vodaphone, Himalaya, Taj Group, Emirates Airlines among others who are ardent user of speciality papers and encourage uniform usage across countries. The trend is set to grow, eventually result in rise of speciality paper consumption in India."

Digital is the emerging trend and areas like photobook and personalised printing offers big opportunities in India. "HP Indigo is our exclusive media partner and HP encourages its PSPs to use Fedrigoni papers certified by HP. This is the right time for us to focus and cater to the requirements of high end specialty papers and drive across the right message through the spectrum of end users especially in the India's metros," added Muddolon.

Fedrigoni has also created ICC profiles for its different range of papers available for downloaded on their website www.paperideas.it