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K-light celebrates a year of success
Just over a year ago, on 12th January 2009, St Regis began producing K-light on its high tech paper machine at Kemsley Mill. Since then, K-light, the first high quality lightweight corrugated casemaking raw material to be manufactured in the UK, has raised the standard for other lightweight papers in terms of performance, consistency and service support. There has been a heavyweight investment in this lightweight paper. DS Smith Plc, the parent company of St Regis, acquired facilities from M-real at a total cost of over £100 million, including expenditure on a whole new infrastructure. The Kemsley Mill has one of the most technically advanced stock preparation plants in Europe incorporating highly sophisticated fractionation, screening and reject handling processes.
The vast majority of K-light produced by the 264,000 tonne capacity machine has been sold domestically, displacing imports of variable quality. “Trials in the early part of 2009 had already shown that K-light’s technical performance made it the best lightweight corrugated casemaking raw material on the market,” comments Nick Britton, Sales and Marketing Director. “It has continued to prove itself since then, consistently beating lightweight papers from Continental Europe. In fact, performance tests show K-light is as much as 25 per cent stronger than some lightweight papers. This superior strength has been seen to translate into increased box strength, with some results in excess of 10 per cent higher than competitive products.”
K-light also meets the need for more sustainable packaging by helping to minimise material use in boxes. Made 100 per cent from recycled paper, products made from K-light can be recycled again and again, ensuring the fibres go round and round in the ‘corrugated loop’.
All this is a great tribute to the team that runs the highly advanced PM6 machine at Kemsley which makes paper 6.7 metres wide at a rate of more than 1,000m per minute. The standards of service have also been high with punctual delivery schedules. St Regis supplies some customers immediately from stock and can spring to the rescue of others when imported papers fail to arrive. “This really is British manufacturing at its best. The success of K-light helps to underpin the future of Kemsley paper mill, which employs directly and indirectly around 1000 people in the area,” concludes Mr Britton.
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