PAPER NEWS

Feltham merchant buys HDPIndependent west London paper merchant Elliott Baxter has taken over the assets of smaller rival Howard Davies Paper - the first acquisition in the company's 77 year history. Located in Southampton, the HDP business covers an area from Reading in the north, to Littlehampton in the east and Dorchester to the west and is said to be a good geographic fit with the Feltham company. The combined company is expected to have annual sales this year in the region of #55m. "The takeover is a positive step forward for both companies and reinforces our joint competitive capability against the multi-national merchants," says managing director Tim Elliott. He also says it was especially good news for printers who would benefit from "not having to be served by huge conglomerates owned by large paper mills. It is very much a long-term move to ultimately sell more paper," says Mr Elliott, adding that it was the intention to retain all staff at HDP.Sappi Nash Mills has launched a swatch box designed to hold swatches of all the products in the company's range. Among the papers available are the Paradis range of coloured papers, the Croxley Heritage recycled range, business paper Croxley Script and the recently relaunched Vanguard range of coloured papers, envelopes and boards.The Robert Horne Group has added 100,000 sq ft to its warehousing network with the opening of three new regional distribution centres, designed to make its core range available for same day delivery throughout most of the UK. The centres at Bracknell, Rosyth and Leeds are expected to play a major part in the company's "best of both worlds" logistics strategy. This is based on a cascade structure with Robert Horne's 300,000 sq ft Northampton warehouse at the hub. Northampton feeds a network of eight regional centres, all around 30,000 sq ft in capacity, in turn supporting 30 satellite branches and sales offices. "The `best of both worlds' strategy combines optimum cost efficiency with the ability to meet customers' increasing service demands, now and in the future," says Toby Marchant, managing director of Robert Horne Paper. "The beauty of the approach is that on-demand service for our main lines is backed by a large of range of 11,000 items for guaranteed next day delivery."Specialist environmental paper merchant Paperback has added Sherwood Kraft to its range of recycled products. Made by Garnett, Sherwood Kraft can be used for a number of applications ranging from wrappings, greetings cards and envelopes to retail swing tickets, point of sale and gift bags. Produced in substances from 60- 150gsm, Paperback says the paper can be delivered in whatever sheet or roll size might be required. "Sherwood Kraft is unusual in that it has a good aesthetic feel as well as being a genuine environmentally friendly product," says Alan Goschalk, general manager of the paper merchant.Avery Dennison graphics division has extended its range of standard stock colours in the Avery 800 Premium Films range of self- adhesive marking films to a total of 81 - said to make it the biggest on the market. Amy Bobrick, Avery Dennison's market manager of signage films, believes the films are the easiest products for a signmaker to use. "Avery 800 PF films are true cast vinyls, offering the recognised `cast films' benefits of conformability, excellent handling and conversion characteristics," she says. The films are designed for high-end medium-life applications on flat and simply- curved surfaces. For a limited period, with every four-roll order for Avery 800 PF products the company is offering a free roll of film.