Sappi has announced that over the course of the next two years it is to invest a sum in the ‘low double-digit millions’ in expanding its Centre of Excellence for speciality papers. The investment will help the company expand its production capacity to support further growth in its existing dye sublimation business.
Work is set to commence in the middle of this year, and is scheduled to be completed before the end of 2023. As part of the project Sappi’s mill facility, located in Carmignano, northern Italy, will be expanded, improving lead times, and upgraded into terms of its environmental and sustainability credentials.
The company says that it recognised the importance of sublimation paper for digital transfer printing in 2018. Shortly after the epiphany, the company acquired Cham Paper Group, a Swiss group of companies active in the field of speciality paper and with high-performance mills in Carmignano and Condino, Italy.
The following year saw the company open its Digital Solutions Centre in Carmignano as well as the launch of a range of new products in the field of sublimation printing, including the Transjet Tacky Industrial and the Transjet Drive.
Luis Mata, Sappi’s sales director, Packaging and Digital Solutions, commented, ‘Our sublimation papers are ideal for a variety of products in the fashion, home textile, sportswear, soft signage and hard substrate sectors. They perform exceptionally well with maximum ink transfer and minimum ink consumption. Over the next five years, we see a significant increase in demand for these papers. And this is why we are now expanding our capacities.’
