The new paper and board range is available now in five sizes, and nine weights, 80gsm to 500gsm, including three, 250, 300 and 330gsm, suitable for HP Indigo use.
Commercial director Chris Brown said Porcelain was “very high white, has wonderful smoothness and great touch. It’s a great British product.”
He said it would be ideal for corporate brochures, greetings cards and high-end stationery such as invitations.
“I think graphic designers will love it because it gives a better response for their images,” Brown said.
The launch follows another new “premium white” product, launched by Arjowiggins last week. The French company said its Teknocard range was the widest available in the market for packaging and graphical applications and said it would appeal to users of former Tullis Russell Papermakers product Trucard.
However, Brown said James Cropper was “looking at a different market” to Trucard and Teknocard for Porcelain.
Also last week Premier Paper Group bought the former Tullis Russell paper brand Advocate from the administrators of Tullis Russell Papermakers, KPMG. GF Smith bought another Tullis Russell brand, Naturalis, from KPMG in June.
Brown said James Cropper was not interested in acquiring any of the Tullis Russell brands, scotching speculation that it was a possible purchaser. Whether it will manufacture any of them remains to be seen.
Instead the company, which is based in Kendal and celebrated its 170th year in business this month, is pursuing its own agenda.
“We’re the only speciality paper mill in the world to launch a paper called Coffee that’s really fabulous for us,” Brown said. “It was released six months ago and is going great guns, ahead of internal forecasts."
The company’s coffee cup recycling plant, which was opened by The Queen almost exactly two years ago, now produces around 10% of James Cropper’s pulp requirement. Half of this goes to make the Coffee range, around 40% to make the Vanguard range, depending on colour, and the Croxley Heritage range uses 10%. It also goes into custom makings as agreed.
James Cropper is currently recycling the equivalent of 10 million cups per week.
On opening the plant chairman Mark Cropper said producing some of its own pulp would shield the company from wood pulp price fluctuations - "a global commodity that swings all over the place". Tullis Russell Papermakers' now-closed Fife mill cited the high cost of buying wood pulp on the open market as being a factor in its failure, prior to its administration on 27 April.
Both companies were founded in the 1800s.
Brown said: “The market is not easy, the paper market is never easy." But he added: "We are a British speciality papermaker, we’re innovative and we are thriving. We are doing the right things.”
The company has also refreshed its Comet range, which features a shimmering metallic surface that is suitable for litho, relief processes, laser cutting embossing and foil blocking and has security benefits as it is difficult to copy, according to the firm.
The paper comes in eight colours: Quartz, Diamond, Opal, Sand, Tungsten, Platinum, Azure and Carbon, and two weights: 120gsm and 300gsm.
