Independent auditors for FSC awarded the environmental certification to the firm's pulp management practices, enabling any coated paper produced at its Kent-based Snodland mill that contains FSC pulp content to carry the FSC trademark.

Smurfit Townsend Hook chief executive Laurent Sellier said the certification underlined the firm's green credentials.

"This allows us to demonstrate our awareness of, and commitment to, the environment," said Sellier. "It also recognises the company's endeavours to meet its customers' needs."

The Snodland mill will now join a small number of FSC coated paper producers who are certified under FSC standards.

The FSC accreditation guarantees that the pulp is supplied from forests that have been managed in a sustainable way. Smurfit joins the UK's recent additions to the ranks of FSC certified mills, including ArjoWiggins' Ivybridge and Stowford mills, and St Andrews-based speciality paper maker Curtis Fine Paper.

The Fineblade range of papers, produced by Smurfit, is made from elemental chlorine-free (ECF) pulp, and the mill also produces the 75% recycled Revive range for the Robert Horne Group.

Smurfit Townsend Hook's Snodland mill has an overall production capacity of just over 310,000 tonnes per year, some 260,000 tonnes of which is packaging, made from recycled material, with 55,000 tonnes of coated paper production.

Story Andy Scott