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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Straw-paper maker plans factory

City company tests demand for its product before building

By: Murray McNeill

Posted: 08/16/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Claudia Schmid, manager of the Staples store on Pembina Highway, shows packages of Step Forward straw paper.

A Winnipeg company is one step closer to building the continent's first commercial-scale, non-wood pulp and paper mill with the retail launch of a new type of copy paper made mainly from leftover straw.

Prairie Pulp & Paper Inc., whose ownership group includes a company owned by actor Woody Harrelson, said its new environmentally friendly Step Forward Paper contains 80 per cent straw and 20 per cent Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood fibre.

Company president Jeff Golfman said it's the first paper of its kind to hit store shelves in North America and is now available in Staples Canada stores across the country.

Golfman said getting the copy paper onto store shelves was the latest milestone in a 14-year process of building a $500-million, state-of-the-art factory that can manufacture the paper in Manitoba.

"That is the absolute goal -- to build a factory in rural Manitoba that uses Manitoba-grown wheat straw. But first we have to prove (the product) in the marketplace. Once it's proven in the marketplace, we can move on to the next step, which is building a factory in Manitoba."

Golfman said it's difficult to predict how soon that might happen, noting it all depends on the public's response to the paper.

"But if I had a dream, it would be within a couple of years," he said. "That's the best-case scenario."

The paper on store shelves now was made at a factory in India.

Golfman said Prairie Pulp & Paper had to search the globe to find a factory that could produce the paper it had developed.

It's shipped to Canada and distributed to the Staples stores by Unisource Canada, a national supplier of printing and imaging products.

Golfman said if enough consumers buy the product, the company will proceed with the construction of its own plant, using technology and equipment from the India plant and from another supplier in Germany.

"Our goal is not to reinvent the wheel, but to work with proven technology that already exists."

He said the Manitoba plant would be highly automated, would produce about 215,0000 tonnes of paper per year and employ between 200 and 300 people.

The company expects to buy wheat straw from up to 500 farmers in the province, he said, giving them an additional source of revenue.

Golfman and Prairie Pulp & Paper chairman Clayton Manness said it could take up to a year before they know if there's sufficient demand to warrant building a factory here, but they're hoping they'll get a good fix on it within a few months.

Manness said if they can prove there is sufficient demand, it will be easier to raise the capital to built the factory.

Staples is the exclusive Canadian retailer for the product.

Pete Gibel, the company's vice-president of merchandising, said the chain has had good success with other environmentally friendly products and has high hopes for this one.

"Paper made from leftover straw produces high quality and performance that compares with other copy and printer papers," he said.

"It's an easy and cost-effective way for consumers and small businesses to conserve our world's forests without sacrificing quality."

Gibel said the paper has been in the chain's stores for only a week or two, and it's too early to gauge what consumers' response to it will be.

He said a 500-sheet package of regular copy paper can range in price from $4 to $10, and the price for Prairie Pulp & Paper's straw-based paper is $6.99. That's similar in price to other environmentally friendly copy-paper products, he added.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 16, 2012 B5

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