Walmart, Target Whole Foods and Sears all use the conVerd range in its POS marketing in the US.
Business development manager David Ives said the product was “priced for quality” and was good value because it offered a high return on recycling, leading to higher profits.
FiberMark has a $200m turnover and operates three paper mills in the US and one, FiberMark Red Bridge in Bolton, Lancashire in the UK.
The company’s traditional market was in producing specialist coated paper and textiles for book covers but it moved into POS and producing coated wallpaper paper for digital wide-format printing over the past few years as the book market declined.
Last year it purchased conVerd, a Vermont-based substrate manufactrurer, and still uses the name for the products, which are available in 1.5mm, 3mm, 3.5mm, 4.7mm and 6mm for use on flatbed UV and screen printers. It is the range’s first public showing in Europe.
Ives said: “Our USP is that we’re 100% paper while a lot of POS boards are PU or polyethylene and so you can’t recycle them. Our boards are 90% pure virgin pulp and 10% post customer waste, so you get at least four recycles out of them. The boards also don’t warp.”
He believes European supermarket chains would also be keen on using a recyclable product for its POS displays.
“When people get it they get it and they understand. Nobody is yet using it in Europe.”
The company has also seen a big rise in its wallpaper papers for wide format digital printers. It manufactured 10,000m in 2011, 30,000m in 2012, 80,000m in 2013 and 300,000m in 2014 at its Red Bridge plant. It works with a printer in Leyland, who produces high-end wallpapers on HP latex machines for the likes of Nina Campbell and Designers Guild.
Ives said that the show had been brilliant for interest but so far nobody had signed on the dotted line.
“It’s coming in waves, there’s three of us here and we can’t cope, we have so many visitors. It’s been a great show, one of the best shows I’ve ever done. It’s better than Drupa and I’ve done five. It’s more focused on the market we serve.”
