PankaLux, which is on show for the first time at this week’s FachPack packaging exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany, will become available for worldwide distribution straight after the exhibition shuts its doors on 29 September.

The new board is being targeted at luxury beverage packaging producers.

Pankaboard head of product development Christer Nordman said: “We specialise in high-end substances for boxboards, that is our general niche and strength, and PankaLux has been developed to meet that demanding requirement in the luxury beverage side, where thick cartonboard is required.

“The thickness and smoothness is a great achievement and it has great printability.”

In development for around 12 months, PankaLux is a GC1 folding boxboard, which Pankaboard said has an improved surface for lamination and improved runnability on high-speed packaging lines. 

It ranges in weight from 285-560gsm.

Nordman said the heavier weighted boards will be especially popular in the luxury whisky packaging market, in which the UK is a market leader.

In 2013, Pankaboard opened a sales office in the UK.

“The UK is definitely a strategic market for Pankaboard and is the second largest in Europe for packaging so is most probably a strategic market for everyone. The whiskey business is very specific to the UK and Pankaboard are looking at high thickness for boxboard, it is definitely an interesting area,” said Nordman.

All of Pankaboard’s products are manufactured at its plant in eastern Finland. It has a number of other folding boxboard products, including PankaBrite and PankaWhite, as well as wood pulp boards and solid bleached sulphate (SBS) boards.

It employs around 160 staff and distributes to 65 countries.

Last year, UK paper merchant and converter Vision Paper & Board formed a partnership with Pankaboard to become the exclusive UK sheeter of its PankaBrite boxboard.