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Being the Best Pays off for Tullis Russell Coaters

The Tullis Russell Group, which comprises Tullis Russell Papermakers and Tullis Russell Coaters, celebrates its 200th
anniversary this year. Tullis Russell Coaters Ltd is the market leader in postage stamp papers and is now diversifying
into a range of different markets for security papers. Last year it launched a new line of security products called truse-
curity, which it is about to complement with an environmentally-friendly range as well. Authentication News visited the
company at its premises in Cheshire in the north west of England to find out more.

The company was founded as a papermaker by Robert Tullis in 1809. Fast forward to 1980 and the company acquired the Decalcomania Papers Ltd business, based in Hanley, from Brittains. Two years later, the company Coated Papers Ltd was founded and in 1986 this, too, was acquired by Tullis Russell. In 2002 the two were amalgamated under the name Tullis Russell Coaters and moved to Bollington, Cheshire, with production for the ceramic side of the business transferred to Kwang Duck in South Korea, where the company had acquired a coating facility in 1999.

Today the Group is headed by CEO Chris Parr with two divisions. First is the original Tullis Russell Papermakers, which produces paper for the business communications and graphics arts markets, as well as for cheques, and employs around 500 people at its mill in Glenrothes in Scotland.

Second is Tullis Russell Coaters in Bollington headed by MD Stephen Forbes, which employs just over 100 people and provides a wide range of coated papers and, more recently films, for the security print and label markets. Its production site in Korea has 75 employees and produces transfer papers for the ceramics and textiles industries.

The Group was acquired from the Russell family in 1994 via a management- led employee buy-out, and all the employees own shares in the company, can supplement these through a share option scheme and receive bonuses each year in the form of dividends.

Social Responsibility

Tullis Russell Coaters (TRC) is the part of the group where the development and production of security products is undertaken. Bollington is a quintessential small English town set in the heart of an area that was once the world’s production centre for textiles. Hidden in the centre of the town, amid mills converted into apartments and winding streets of cottages, is the 35,000 sq m factory, with a stream running through its car park and overlooked by a church and a hillside surmounted by a Victorian folly. Given this location, the company takes its community and environmental qualifications very seriously – supporting local schools and youth groups, holding open days and, ensuring through its production processes which are ISO 14001-compliant, that its impact on the local environment is minimal.

It has the same attitude to quality. As Michaela Quinn, Product and Sales Manager, remarked ‘given that we are a UK-based company, we are never going to be the cheapest. So instead, we make sure that we are the best in terms of quality and service.’

The company’s principal product line is coated paper for postage stamps, in which it is a market leader, supplying products around the world for both self-adhesive and gummed ( lick’n’stick) varieties. The quality requirements for such stamps is stringent as are, for most customers, security – with anti-counterfeit features embedded both in the substrates and in the print-receptive coatings and adhesives that the company specialises in. However, a strategic review of the business led to the inevitable conclusion that, with the growth of ecommunications and the decline of traditional postal markets, opportunities for growth in this core market are few and far between.

Launch of tru security

As a result, the company has developed a new portfolio of features and products that was brought together and launched last year as the trusecurity range. In addition to postage stamps, this now comprises papers and coated products developed specifically for tax stamps, visas, tickets and vouchers, phone cards and security labels. All products are formulated individually for each company but, in addition, TRC offers a bespoke service – Speciality Solutions – for customers with specific and unique long-term development requirements.

The company sources its base paper from a number of suppliers in addition to its sister company Tullis Russell Papermakers. These suppliers will include within the substrate some of the features required by its customers – such as visible and UV visible fibres, planchettes and watermarks. Additional security features are then ‘locked in’ by TRC through the application of its proprietary coatings and adhesives, which include tinted adhesives, chemical sensitisation and fluorescent, phosphorescent and IR taggants. Additional features include covert images (embossed or UV) that are applied between the coatings on the face of the papers or between the papers and liners for self-adhesive products.

Self-Adhesive Stamps

Different solutions have been developed for different markets and their requirements in terms not just of security, but performance and convertibility as well. One example is the development of a self-adhesive substrate for intaglio-printed tax stamps. Traditionally, intaglio (or gravure) and self-adhesive have not gone together, the pressure from the intaglio process resulting in the adhesive leaching out from the underside of the substrate, which affects not only printing but conversion as well. TRC has overcome this problem with a smooth coated paper with a high tack permanent adhesive that is not affected by the intaglio process, thereby enabling the security benefits of intaglio printing to be combined for the first time with the functional benefits of self-adhesive products.

The same expertise in print-receptive coatings is also paying off for holograms, which are increasingly being used for tax stamps. For these features, whatever the application, it is a case of the smoother the surface the better – with the coating enhancing both the brightness and the adhesion of the hologram.

Ticket and Visa Stock

Another product, this time for oneuse security products such as tickets and vouchers, is paper which, when torn, reveals a colour inside. This provides a very fast manual authentication feature for turnstile operators without the need for special equipment.

For visas, which are proving an important market for the company, key requirements along with security features include a very strong adhesive that prevents the visa from being removed from passports. They also include a chemical coating that is sensitive to acids, alkalis, bleaches, solvents and alcohols, to prevent alternation of the personalised data.

For phone cards, TRC uses the heavier base paper from its sister company and coats these with an opaque print-receptive and scratch-resistant coating which prevents the PIN number from being revealed.

Security Labels

The last core market for TRC is frangible papers and films for security labels – complete, if required, with a voiding feature. As with self-adhesive tax stamp and visa papers, the company can also offer any variant of release properties depending on the method of conversion and application to the end product.

The application of the speciality coatings for gummed and label products are two 2 m wide coating lines. A third 1.6 m wide coater is used for the production of self-adhesive products and the application of special features such as UV reactive inks. All are equipped with multiple drying zones and online scanning systems to monitor moisture content, colour absorption etc. The products, once coated, are calendared to ensure a smooth surface before passing to the finishing department, which has recently benefited from a £1.3m investment.

Quality is Key

In addition to this investment, TRC has also implemented what it terms ‘Japanese Total Quality Management systems’ throughout the plant. This extends not just to quality assurance and control and audit procedures, but also the appointment of individual service and quality ‘champions’ for each customer from its customer service and production teams. Its customer database reads like a Who’s Who of security printers, with 120 or so around the world regularly sourcing their paper requirements from the company.

Another area of focus for TRC is environmental management. The company was ISO 14001 certified several years ago, has put in place improvement targets for the consumption of energy and water, as well as waste reduction, and has signed up to the UK government’s Climate Change Levy Agreement

Last year, meanwhile, it was awarded Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accreditation for the purchase, processing, sales and distribution of paper products in accordance with sustainable forest management.

New Eco Range

The company has now gone one step further with the introduction of its new trusecurity Eco range, which it will be launching at the forthcoming Intergraf conference in Stockholm. This comprises FSC and recycled base papers and release liners, along with water-based coatings and environmentally- friendly adhesives that are fully biodegradable and cellulose-based filmic substrates. The company admits that the jury is out on recycled options given the high performance requirements of its products. But it has identified a strong demand for products that are sourced from sustainable sources and/or that are biodegradable, and sees a bright future for this new range.

As noted earlier, Tullis Russell is employee-owned and does not disclose its financial figures. However according to the company, it is on course to improve on last year’s results, demonstrating that its quality and diversification strategy is paying dividends.