An industry source confirmed that the Irvine-based paper mill had an audit conducted at the plant for both schemes around three weeks ago. But so far there has been no formal announcement made by UPM.

Leading magazine publishers BBC Worldwide and Future Publishing are both members of the WWF 95+ Group, and are committed to using or buying paper products that comes from sustainably managed forests.

The developments at Caledonian follow the announcement by the mill in November 2002 that it was taking measures in preparation for certified production (PrintWeek, 1 November 2002).

At the time UPMs UK head of sustainable development John Sanderson had said that the mill planned to go through a chain-of-custody pre-audit assessment with an independent auditor in 2003.

According to statistics published last year by WWF, the amount of FSC certified paper being produced in Europe has quadrupled since the beginning of 2003, and is set to increase further due to customer demand.

This followed a survey of leading FSC paper manufacturers in Europe, including companies such as SCA, Dalum, Drewsen and Klippan.

The number of FSC certified companies in the paper and print sector worldwide has also doubled since the beginning of 2003 to 129.

Caledonian Paper employs around 360 staff across all sectors of its paper making business, and is renowned for its UPM Cote and UPM Ultra single coated lightweight mechanical papers.

It has a production capacity of over 250,000 tonnes of paper per annum, producing lightweight coated paper for printing magazines and catalogues.

Story by Andy Scott