Stora will continue to use Paperlinx as a stockist but from now on customers will be able to order direct from its Mendlesham, Suffolk-based UK sheeting plant, Lumipaper. 

“We do have direct customers for other grades and what we are effectively doing is just opening the facility for them to be able to buy wood-free coated sheets direct from us as well as whatever else they buy. But if anyone needs a merchant service for our product, Paperlinx is still where they go,” said Lumipaper managing director Mario Di Lieto. 

“Our sheeting plant in the UK needs 100,000 tonnes to make it pay and while traditionally we have had that volume, we are now in a situation where we cannot, at the prices we require, fill the plant,” he said.

“Lumi is still the market leader and we felt it was important that if we are going to keep it as that then we need to make sure that it is widely available at a fair market price,” he added. 

The new direct service will offer delivery of standard sizes in five days or three days for a bespoke premium service from the site, which already holds stock for existing indent business.

Orders will be delivered via Lumipaper’s outsourced distribution service, Di Lieto said, and while they are currently handled by telephone customer service, the business intends to implement an online ordering facility to complement this offering, he added.

Paperlinx was unable to provide a comment at the time of writing.