Monday, January 13, 2025
What lies ahead for James Cropper?
British papermaker James Cropper has embarked on a « transformation plan ». How is this set to impact its luxury business? Richard Bracewell, promoted Managing Director of the Creative Papers & Luxury Packaging division in August 2023 and Tricia Hartmann, Luxury Packaging Global Lead, talk to Formes de Luxe about James Cropper’s strategic roadmap, and the luxury trends that are guiding developments in its molded pulp packaging activity.
How is James Cropper’s « transformation plan », which debuted late 2022, impacting your paper division?
Richard Bracewell: Our specialty paper business supplies numerous markets, including more traditional ones, and in particular stationery, files, folders and envelopes. In the face of increased digitization, these segments have been seeing a natural decline over the years and it accelerated during and since the pandemic. James Cropper is growing significantly in other areas, including luxury packaging, which had us rethink the areas we wanted to focus on going forward.
Is this what the company refers to as « right sizing »?
RB: Yes, it’s about reorganizing the business to service what we see as the markets of today and tomorrow. We’re downsizing some of our manufacturing areas but investing in others where we are seeing greater growth.
Does the reduction of paper machines from four to three reflect that strategy?
RB: It does, but we’re also moving from a system where we work 24 hours, 5 and a half days a week to 24 hours, seven days a week with fewer machines, so in terms of available production hours we’re increasing. The plan is to run two machines out of three at any one time and when one machine is shut down, we can work on it from an engineering perspective. One of the more energy intensive aspects of industry is starting and stopping machines, so by running continuously we reduce the amount of downtime, and we have greater efficiency.
Alongside this, we are making significant investments in our decarbonization program. We’re looking to reduce pretty much to zero the amount of fossil fuels we use by 2030.
How much does the Creative Papers & Luxury Packaging business account for in the group?
RB: James Cropper’s turnover reached £130m last year and the paper and molded pulp business was £92m. In terms of revenue, Creative Papers & Luxury Packaging remains the largest part of the business, but our Advanced Materials division (Technical Fibres and Future Energy) is the fastest-growing sector. The Technical Fibres activity was born out of papermaking as it utilizes a paper making process but with different fiber input; rather than natural wood they use synthetic carbon fibers to make materials for fuel cell development, renewable energy, fire protection…
What is your strategy for your division?
RB: We will have reduced our headcount in Creative Papers & Luxury Packaging by about 15% over the recent period. This reduction is first off due to changes to our industrial footprint: there are fewer people required in the manufacturing side as we are right sizing with the volume of the business.
We’ve also integrated Colourform, the molded pulp division with the specialty papers business, so there are a number of roles that were duplicated. We had two managing directors, two head of productions, head of technical… However, there have been employment opportunities in the other parts of the business, so a number of people have moved to the Advanced Materials division.
We’re also looking to create more flexibility across the business, particularly in the operations area where staff will be able to work on more than one machine. Increased automation has also had an impact; we invested last year in a new embossing center that included more than £3m for a new and more automated embosser with a much higher output. This serves our paper products and the packaging offer, papers for box covering, shopper bags, but not for the molded pulp products, where the embossing is done within the tool itself.
Ours is quite a labor-intensive business with a lot of skilled people within the manufacturing side of things. We’re not losing that but there are opportunities in certain areas to automate. The new embossing machine, for example, does the job of three previous machines, but with fewer people needed from an operational standpoint.
How do you see the molded pulp business evolving?
RB: It’s clearly the group’s fastest growing business segment from a percentage growth perspective, although coming from a smaller base. The Colourform business grew by 24% in FY 2023 (ended March 2023).
As to the future, it’s difficult to predict. In addition to the wraps we did for Ruinart, Perrier-Jouët and beauty products, like Lancôme’s La Vie est Belle, we’re doing a lot of business in trays, but with specific designs, not simply solutions to replace plastic. A lot of our work up to now has been white, but as our point of difference is our expertise in color in light of our papermaking history, I think we’ll see a lot more demand to differentiate product ranges through color.
What is in the innovation pipeline for your paper products?
RB: We’re looking at different fiber sources and recovered fibers in line with our goal to have our paper products include at least 50% recovered fiber alongside virgin. Developments in sustainable fibers, both recycling and waste to be upcycled, are another focus. This includes our Cupcycling initiative or integrating used denim in pulp format.
Cups and cotton are both examples of post-consumer waste, but we’re also looking at sources that come directly from manufacturing processes. There’s inclusion, like what we did with the vine stalks for Perrier Jouët’s Cocoon wrap, and then there is working with other papermakers who either can’t or don’t reuse their own waste. The advantage here is that we can buy a product that is both consistent and clean. It used to be that brands asked for post-consumer, but the industry is now seeing that direct from manufacturing is also a virtuous option.
Other areas, in the long term, would be a variety of agri-fibers, such as bamboo or hemp. Can we make paper from seaweed? Increasingly we’ll be looking at faster growing fibers.
How do you see the emerging trend among luxury brands to do away with secondary packaging?
RB: There’s a shift happening, but there is still a lot of potential out there, especially in terms of bespoke packaging. Some brands are moving from boxes to wraps, from heavyweight grades to lighter weight ones. This is also evident in the paper for shopping bags, where through our choice of materials and chemistry we can increase product strength not just through grammage but also via lighter-weight solutions.
To put it simply, the potential growth of the molded pulp activity far outweighs the potential losses as brands move away from boxes and paper.
What shifts are you seeing in luxury brands’ tastes when it comes to packaging?
Tricia Hartmann: There is a demand for inconsistency in the final product, which is quite a new value in luxury; the little spots that were once condemned as imperfections are now celebrated and make a packaging unique. Personalized texture is another direction. Brands are no longer content to have their identity identified by a color, they are asking for textural effects as well: sandy, cloudy… something that illustrates the brand story and evokes emotion via texture. Parchment type paper, which is coming back to the fore after having had a reputation for being old-fashioned, is one example.
We’re also moving from classic rectangular-shaped packs to those that first and foremost are about color and form – a new territory infused with more energy and innovation in shape to connect with the brand universe.
Is molded pulp packaging still mainly in the domain of wine & spirits and fragrance & cosmetics?
TH: For the moment, yes. In makeup there are challenges here when it comes to primary packaging, whereas in fragrance it’s all about secondary packaging. In spirits, we’re seeing extensions into whisky, rum and cognac while up till now we had a strong focus on champagne. We have some projects in the pipeline that are mixing bold colors with deep embossing for a real wow effect. We’re not at the end of this journey!
There are also lots of double shells, such as those that are cylindric on the outside, but with an insert on the inside. But whether that will survive the upcoming European regulations is another story.
Will we be seeing ultra-premium spirits adopting molded pulp?
TH: I think it’s still a bit early for that. Carafes are much more fragile and need to be protected, so molded pulp here is more for inserts inside rigid boxes or coffrets. Its use is functional for the moment, but this could well change in the next two years or so and be a first step to lead these super-premium brands towards the use of molded pulp.
What about e-commerce packaging?
Brands are taking more control of the unboxing experience to set themselves apart. Corrugated cardboard and kraft paper have clearly taken the market, but there is a growing trend for black and colored packaging, both inside and outside. Inserts, either in molded pulp or simple cardboard, are also gaining ground. Our development strategy is to work on all of the finishing potential in this area: embossing of course, but also varnishing and lamination – in the same color as the molded pulp insert, the inside of the e-com box and even the shopping bag… The idea is to offer a consistent color signature that can follow the consumer throughout the journey: in store, online and at home.