Making a paper agency one of the most successful in the UK is no mean feat despite Papico’s founder Tony Knight’s own admission that “he is just a local lad buying and selling paper”.
Papico was born out of Tony’s desire to supply high quality papers to niche markets. The agency currently represents 11 specialist European paper mills which include Brigl & Bergmeister, Lenzing and Goricane.
Set in West Yorkshire’s mining town of Allerton Bywater, Papico finds itself in the original 1930’s Mining Company offices. Papico is the product of Tony’s key insight into printing industry trends throughout the past 30 years and its successful representation of mills during that time has helped form the backbone of the company.
Tony’s working background has always been in paper, having started out at paper merchant Robert Horne in the late 1960’s as a salesman. He had a pivotal part to play with opening up its branch in Leeds and, along with colleagues, successfully built up sales from zero to form a sizeable and profitable arm of Robert Horne.
It was one of the Leeds branches biggest customers that indirectly provided Tony with an opportunity that ultimately resulted in the birth of Papico. When Lamco took the decision to trade their web gravure qualities directly, Tony found arguably a better quality in Italy from Timavo mill. All the sales for Timavo mill were in those days handled by FaboCart in Milan under Marcello Pedone. The idea to set up Papico came from his reluctance to use a merchant. He preferred an agent as he thought he could control them better.
So, Papico was born and it was the Chairman, Peter Chilton, who came up with the name, which is derived from PAPer Italian COmpany.
The business prospered and Timavo were quickly established with mail order companies. In addition increasing quantities of Timavo’s products were purchased by London publishers.
The biggest and most important breakthrough came when Papico gained the agency for Brigl & Bergmeister. They were re-establishing themselves as producers of 1/S coated paper for the wet glue label market.
End users for these label papers are well known to everyone. They include Heinz, Pedigree Petfoods, Britvic and many other products seen every day in our supermarkets.
Over the past 25 years Papico have not only established a presence with our customers but more importantly have become part of the Brigl family. It is this very personal contact which is vital for any agent.
Papico were still part of Robert Horne Group until 1989 when Tony, finding areas were overlapping too often to be in the best interests of both companies, thought it was time for them to go their separate ways. Tony reflects on the decision to write to the then owner, Kenneth Horne, at the time “I said now is the time that we should leave home”. The cord has not been completely cut, however, as Papico still use Robert Horne’s technical services and as Tony says “We still have many friends there”.
The transition between being partly owned by a major company and then standing on your own two feet was not one that Tony found easy at first “It was a shock not having someone to lean on. Before, you tended to pigeonhole things and then someone else dealt with them but when it’s your own business, the problems are still there in the morning”.
Being an agent rather than a merchant means the focus is on the profitability and interest of the mills and according to Tony, they are essential in ensuring the business is a healthy one. “You are only as good as the mills you work for; if you have the right mills producing the right qualities then you will succeed”.
Papico’s strength today is that the mills they represent are in niche markets. Wet glue labels, greeting cards, security papers and uncoated recycled grades, are good examples of this. Representing several mills selling 5,000-10,000 tonnes each is the key to a strong agency company. This strength has played a particularly important part in these financially turbulent times. Tony adds “All the mills we work with have strong balance sheets and are well run companies”.
When looking at the future and the possibility of taking on more mills, Tony says it is a very fine balancing act and although he is potentially looking at supply from mills in the United States for some specific product areas, he is, as yet, reluctant to venture into supply from the Far East. He says “In my view, the quality from Far Eastern mills is fine but the service is not always what is needed. Quality, service, price and people – those are the important areas and you cannot do without any of them”.
"European mills have a terrific amount to shout about and it is wrong for them to follow the low price offers from the Far East, which has proved to be suicidal. These coated and uncoated mills offer an incredible service which cannot be matched from the other side of the world."
So what is the secret of Papico’s success? “I will listen to anyone for advice and take some of it on board – I am a very open person and I love the smell and feel of our industry. I enjoy seeing what is new and am still excited about it”.
Tony Knight is extremely positive about Papico’s long term future. “My biggest strength is in the young guys who work with me. They drive the business forward and keep me awake. We have the capacity here to expand – maybe through a merger or another mill. I see a rosy future, based on the people we employ and the mills we work with, but I still do not have any plans to retire just yet”.
The Papico team
Paul Johnston-Knight
Director
Tony's Son, Paul, came to Papico from university where he obtained a degree in modern languages. He spent a year working at Brigl & Bergmeister mill in Austria and gained experience in both paper manufacturing and the whole label industry.
Paul is now Director of Papico and his main focus remains with Brigl and the label market. He feels that keeping an eye on shifts in trends and work placement is essential. Business does move from one printer to another and from one material to another and we need to watch this constantly. His very close contact with end users as well as the printer customers allows him to advise and educate people into making the correct decisions. This is particularly true with the fast changing demands from the environmental lobby.
He believes in letting customers and end users know that they can achieve the performance and presentation they want in an environmental way with paper.
Paul also works with Zuber Rieder mill, who are relatively new to Papico. Their tonnage is tiny says Paul and they concentrate on luxury packing papers and boards specifically aimed at the wine and whisky industries.
David Bramhill
Director
David has been at Papico for 12 years starting as inside sales and is now a Director of the company. He has overall responsibility for running the office and this includes all the mills Papico represents.
Says David “It is my job to liaise with our supplying mills to ensure Papico retains the very strong relationship we have and be constantly aware of their needs.”
He finds working for a paper agent unique and interesting. “We have to balance the needs of our customers and the market with making sure the mills we represent have some return. It has to be mutually beneficial to both sides and I am in the middle!”
“Papico is a strong company because of the diverse markets in which we work. That makes us interesting and viable.”
Andrew Dunning
Director
Andrew has worked at Papico for 26 years and has seen many changes within the industry. He believes this has been mirrored at Papico with some mills closing, particularly in the last few years. Andrew has dealt with every mill which Papico has represented but his specific brief today is new technology and potential future markets.
“There are some new and exciting developments in printing today and we have papers from a variety of our mills keeping pace with them. It is a challenge for everyone but it is not based on price.”
Andrew is optimistic about the future for Papico. “We have to continually look for new and reliable mills and sometimes these will be from less traditional areas of supply.”
Andrew concludes “we are a relatively young and enthusiastic team who work extremely well together. We look forward to the next challenge.”
John De Little
John is Papico’s “Man in the South”. John is mainly responsible for Goricane mill who are a specialist producer of matt coated and uncoated papers for publishing, direct mail and pharmaceutical leaflets. John also works with Zuber Rieder for their luxury packaging papers.
Email: sales@papico.co.uk
www.papico.co.uk
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So what is the secret of Papico’s success? “I will listen to anyone for advice and take some of it on board – I am a very open person and I love the smell and feel of our industry. I enjoy seeing what is new and am still excited about it”.
Tony Knight is extremely positive about Papico’s long term future. “My biggest strength is in the young guys who work with me. They drive the business forward and keep me awake. We have the capacity here to expand – maybe through a merger or another mill. I see a rosy future, based on the people we employ and the mills we work with, but I still do not have any plans to retire just yet”.
The Papico team
Paul Johnston-Knight
Director
Tony's Son, Paul, came to Papico from university where he obtained a degree in modern languages. He spent a year working at Brigl & Bergmeister mill in Austria and gained experience in both paper manufacturing and the whole label industry.
Paul is now Director of Papico and his main focus remains with Brigl and the label market. He feels that keeping an eye on shifts in trends and work placement is essential. Business does move from one printer to another and from one material to another and we need to watch this constantly. His very close contact with end users as well as the printer customers allows him to advise and educate people into making the correct decisions. This is particularly true with the fast changing demands from the environmental lobby.
He believes in letting customers and end users know that they can achieve the performance and presentation they want in an environmental way with paper.
Paul also works with Zuber Rieder mill, who are relatively new to Papico. Their tonnage is tiny says Paul and they concentrate on luxury packing papers and boards specifically aimed at the wine and whisky industries.
David Bramhill
Director
David has been at Papico for 12 years starting as inside sales and is now a Director of the company. He has overall responsibility for running the office and this includes all the mills Papico represents.
Says David “It is my job to liaise with our supplying mills to ensure Papico retains the very strong relationship we have and be constantly aware of their needs.”
He finds working for a paper agent unique and interesting. “We have to balance the needs of our customers and the market with making sure the mills we represent have some return. It has to be mutually beneficial to both sides and I am in the middle!”
“Papico is a strong company because of the diverse markets in which we work. That makes us interesting and viable.”
Andrew Dunning
Director
Andrew has worked at Papico for 26 years and has seen many changes within the industry. He believes this has been mirrored at Papico with some mills closing, particularly in the last few years. Andrew has dealt with every mill which Papico has represented but his specific brief today is new technology and potential future markets.
“There are some new and exciting developments in printing today and we have papers from a variety of our mills keeping pace with them. It is a challenge for everyone but it is not based on price.”
Andrew is optimistic about the future for Papico. “We have to continually look for new and reliable mills and sometimes these will be from less traditional areas of supply.”
Andrew concludes “we are a relatively young and enthusiastic team who work extremely well together. We look forward to the next challenge.”
John De Little
John is Papico’s “Man in the South”. John is mainly responsible for Goricane mill who are a specialist producer of matt coated and uncoated papers for publishing, direct mail and pharmaceutical leaflets. John also works with Zuber Rieder for their luxury packaging papers.
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