© zepstudio
Italian luxury packaging papers and labels specialist Fedrigoni is building on its manufacturing partnership inked last year with US-based Mohawk Fine Papers. Mohawk will become the North-American partner distributor of Fedrigoni Specialty Papers as of July 2023.
Fedrigoni Specialty Papers will be distributed in North America by Mohawk as of this July. Based in Cohoes, New York, Mohawk Fine Papers is said to be the largest independent producer of fine papers and envelopes in North America.
The deal will allow Mohawk’s partner distributors and printers in the region to access Fedrigoni’s portfolio, which includes its Materia Viva collection of luxury papers made with recycled materials, and its Sirio Pearl range of colored papers and cardboard featuring a pearlescent surface effect. Fedrigoni’s digital papers, exclusively distributed by GPA, are not concerned by the agreement.
Materia Viva collection; © zepstudio
“We are confident that Mohawk's historical relationships with leading marketers will strengthen Fedrigoni's ability to promote its specialty papers to the creative community and better serve the needs of image-conscious customers in the North American market," commented Ilan Schinazi, Fedrigoni Paper's Sales Director, in a statement.
Meeting demand for local production
The move builds on the manufacturing agreement inked between Fedrigoni and Mohawk that was announced in late 2022 and is designed to expand the reach of their specialty papers globally.
"This is an important step forward to reinforce our geographical penetration in the United States, where we will directly produce and distribute high value-added papers, leveraging all possible industrial and commercial synergies with our Group. We will also better support the ESG strategies of our clients, especially those in the luxury sector by giving them the option of moving to near shoring rather than global purchasing,” Marco Nespolo, CEO of Fedrigoni Group, said at the time.
He told Formes de Luxe in an interview in November last year that the partnership with Mohawk would “very likely give Fedrigoni a significant footprint in the US”, with the partners “working to localize production of luxury and premium packaging grades to serve the growing market there.”
Nespolo added that Paper, Fedrigoni’s historical business, represented around €800m of the total group turnover of €2.2bn in 2022. “Within that, luxury packaging currently accounts for a bit more than 40%: papers that cover rigid boxes, folding boxes and shopping bags.” The specialty papers business saw an increase of 43% last year over 2021, while self-adhesives grew by 31%; the group partially attributes these increases to its drive towards a more premium positioned portfolio.
