The backbone of the £100m-plus turnover group’s new offering is an exclusive partnership with Townsend Board, where the formerly independent, Derbyshire Peak District-based cartonboard specialist has become a trading division of Denmaur.
The launch of the new division, which is effective from the 1 September, is supported by Denmaur adding three new carbon-balanced carton lines to its range: white, cream and kraft back folding box boards, along with a new Revive-branded graphical quality grey board.
The new FSC-certified products join Denmaur’s existing Delipac food and drink packaging grades.
“Sustainable food and pharmaceutical packaging has a greater importance now than ever before as society adapts to the new normal,” said Denmaur director Andy Buxton.
“The addition of a cartonboard division will undoubtedly add strength to the Group, especially as some of the key players in our traditional marketplace will unfortunately succumb to the economic impacts associated with coronavirus.”
The new division will continue to operate under the Townsend Board brand, with the firm’s founder Clive Townsend and his son Michael effectively becoming the dedicated sales team, while also working closely Denmaur’s Print and Media divisions to develop cross-selling opportunities.
The two businesses have supported each other in the past, with ad-hoc reciprocal deals to supply specialist grades to each other.
“We have known Denmaur for many years, both as a customer and as a supplier,” said Clive Townsend.
“Discussions about this arrangement were at an advanced stage just as the pandemic took hold, but I am pleased to confirm that we are now officially with one of the most sustainable paper and board merchants in the UK.”
Denmaur marketing & sustainability director Danny Doogan added: “This is very good for us because we’ve been talking for a long time of doing something in cartonboard and we’ve taken on a few products [in the past] and asked our sales team to diversify, but you really need specialists and with the Townsend team coming on board we’ve instantly got that.
“Their entire function is to sell, sell, sell.”
While Furness Vale-based Townsend will work exclusively as a sales agency for Denmaur, it will retain for the time being its separate limited company status. However, all invoices will be issued to and from Denmaur, which will also take over all other back office functions. Denmaur will also handle all logistics from its 12,000sqm BRC-certified warehouse in Bardon, which opened four years ago.
Doogan said that like the vast majority of businesses, 90-staff Denmaur had used the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and a number of staff remained on furlough for the time being, although he added that he felt the group had ridden out the pandemic quite well and “business was picking up every month”.
