Papersmith & Son

Paper and Forest Product ManufacturingSouth Africa11-50 Employees

Papermith & Son is a speciality paper merchant offering the commercial print industry the widest range of paper substrates available. Papersmith was founded in 1994 by Jo Haden-Smith, who handed over the reigns to his son Rob in 2004. 

Since its inception, Papersmith has continued to grow its range of products exponentially. Cyclus from Dalum (now owned by Arjo Wiggins), is considered to be the most environmentally friendly paper in the world scoring an incredible 92 points on the WWF Paper Scorecard. Papersmith also represents both of the leading speciality mills in Italy, Fedrigoni and Gruppo Cordenons, with trend-setting products like Wild, Plike, Savile Row, Stardream, Natural Evolution and most of our CSI grades coming from them.

Papersmith & Son offers the design industry far more than just a nice range of papers and a sampling service. When Rob travels overseas he visits leading merchants to find out what gives them a competitive differential. These concepts and new ranges are evaluated for suitability in the South African market and either introduced or discarded. The two most important characteristics among the winners in Europe boiled down to two things: stock availability and designer-related services. Every designer has experienced the situation of a client accepting a job on a specific paper and by the time it goes to print there is no stock in the country. Papersmith & Son can, at their discretion, and do airfreight the stock within a ten day lead-time. We also run an exceptional reserve system as a service to our customers, allowing them to reserve stock for a specific job.

In March of 2004, Papersmith & Son decided to extend their services by launching the PaperCafe, in Melrose Estate. It allows graphic designers, the printing industry as well as corporate customers and members of the public to see the transformation of the paper in the sample library, get a feel for Papersmith & Son’s range, and enjoy a delicious cappuccino while at it.

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