Born In A Barn
Midland Paper was born out of a “coming together” of people with vast experience in the paper industry, and with a common mind-set about how to deliver good quality, consistency and service. The majority of the new directors left Daemas Disposables when it was taken over by LPC in 2004, and the new team set up home in a large converted barn.
The company was established with no formal investment (except a fridge and a couple of cans of beer), and the rent was in the region of £1 per square foot! “They were exciting times, if a little scary, as we bought our first two container loads of product and set about selling them,” commented Mick Booth, Operations Director. “We were bullishly confident – we had a lot of experience between us, and all brought our own strengths to the table.”
From Little Acorns Mick and Les Lloyd were in charge of operations, Craig Williams was
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selling and Ron Smith, the Company Finance Director, counted the money. “At least that’s what we were hoping for as we set off on our ambitious plan,” Les clarified, and the plan went pretty well. In month one, they sold both container loads, and ordered three more – Midland Paper was up and running.
Initially, the company didn’t convert its own products, working instead with a small number of close partners within the industry, for the resale of paper products. The organisation offered sub distributors greater flexibility, enabling them to buy less product than a typical manufacturers’ minimum delivery. Then, in 2005, Midland Paper introduced its own brand, Esfina. Craig Williams, Sales Director, explained: “Customers buy from suppliers that they can rely on, and who deliver consistency in their product. A brand becomes a badge or mark of consistency, and for us, Esfina was our mark.”
Midland Paper Products are celebrating 10 years in the business this year, and we sat down with their top team to talk about their humble beginnings in a barn conversion.
A Badge Of Honour As the company evolved, and expanded their customer base of janitorial distributors, it became clear that a second quality brand would also be needed – Katrin was an obvious choice for Midland Paper. Craig explained: “We had already established a relationship with Metsä Tissue in 2006, and our customers started to ask us for Katrin. The Katrin brand reflected our own ethos: consistent quality products which were already highly recognisable in the market, and Katrin products come with a full range of functional dispensers, and bring with them the large corporate sustainability messaging that was becoming ever more important.”
Katrin products are made from sustainable forestry. They have a “chain of custody” certification, carry the Nordic Swan Ecolabel and are made in premises with ISO9001 & ISO14001 certifications. Craig added: “In a lot of ways, Metsä
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