Costly Paperboard Cuts Costs

Invercote from Iggesund Paperboard is one of the most expensive paperboards on the market in terms of price per kilo.

23/12/06 Posters, cards and calendars are the main products of the French publisher Nouvelles Images, which has specialised in supplying large parts of the world with pictures. One of the most expensive specialities in the company’s product range consists of images transferred to canvas which is then stretched on wooden stretchers. In an attempt to differentiate its offer according to customer type and to reduce production costs, the company tried replacing the expensive canvas with the upmarket paperboard Invercote – and thereby dramatically reduced its costs. At the end of June, the production tests were conclusive.

“Our customers want to have contemporary art on their walls, but the more that art possesses the physical characteristics of traditional art the better,” explains Guy Vialard, director of marketing at Nouvelles Images. “But like all companies we need to control costs and we want to be able to offer our products in different price categories. Paperboard on stretchers has therefore proven to be a very interesting complement to our product range of canvas.”

Invercote from Iggesund Paperboard is one of the most expensive paperboards on the market in terms of price per kilo. But it also has a number of properties, such as exceptional tearing resistance, which were crucial for the application chosen by Nouvelles Images.

“Invercote’s tearing resistance means that it can withstand the demands of this particular application,” explains Didier Saindon, an experienced sales rep for Iggesund Paperboard in the French market. “Another advantage is that it can be linen embossed to further increase the resemblance to an artist’s canvas.” Yet another of Invercote’s properties – its quality consistency – has enabled Nouvelles Images to use Invercote to a greater extent in other product lines as well, like cards.

“We are major purchasers of high-end printed products,” says Karine Del Signore, production manager at Nouvelles Images. “We know what the starting material’s quality consistency means to the overall economy of a printed product. If we can rely on every new pallet behaving exactly the same as its predecessor in the production process, and having the exact same printing properties and runnability – well, then we have shorter set up times and fewer problems to deal with.”

“Invercote is the best-documented paperboard on the market,” explains Didier Saindon. “For every grammage there are about thirty values given. Fourteen of them are also stated with tolerances which act as a guarantee to our customers.” Nouvelles Images was founded by Jacques and Nicole Blanc in 1957 and at first primarily published art cards. Over the years the company has grown to have 150 employees and worldwide sales. En route the company has made works by artists like Braque, Matisse, Picasso and many others widely accessible in the form of quality reproductions for everyone who cannot afford to buy an original. “It’s a tough, highly competitive market in which high quality is an important competitive tool,” concludes Guy Vialard.