The division was officially launched on Tuesday (2 April) and the new offering features a range of substrates suited to POS displays and graphics for both short- and long-term use.

The Birmingham-headquartered merchanting group has put together a portfolio of materials from suppliers such as Intercoat, Foamalux, Ritrama, Essential, Kernowjet and Styline. Products on offer will include board, paper, vinyl, film, and polypropylene.

Premier gave the division its first public outing at Sign & Digital UK 2019 at the Birmingham NEC this week, its stand was specifically constructed out of materials available within the range with displays based around a Hollywood theme.

Group marketing director Dave Jones said: “We are always looking to grow our portfolio and offer more choices to our clients and, while there has been a wide-format offering at Premier for years, this sees us move into that sign and display market.

“Looking at our customer base, we serve a lot of graphic printers with wide-format capabilities and those businesses are looking to offer more to their own customers on the equipment they have. Our new offering is part of a response to that.

“It is a significant investment for us that means new suppliers and new competitors as we work to up our profile. Response from customers at the show so far has been fantastic.”

Premier has hired a team of five sign and display specialists who will work across different regions to support the company’s 54-strong team of account managers on the sale of the new products.

Materials will be stored locally at Premier’s 15 UK bases and distributed out to the regions it serves by the company’s fleet of 135 vehicles.

Employing 480 people, Premier Paper turned over £237m last year and Jones said there was a view to see Display Graphics take up an increasing portion of that as the division grows.