Arandell Corporation

Blake Hutchison, Director of Purchasing

Wow, what a difference a few price increase announcements make on demand!  I think the mills got the desired effect they were looking for.

Lead times are increasing and increasing rapidly.  Coated groundwood grades seem to be accelerating the quickest, with lead times already out 5 – 7 weeks.  Coated freesheet, while not as bad, is still out 3 – 5 weeks.

The greatest factor in how quickly you can get paper is the basis weight.  If you print on a heavier weight (70#, 80#, 100#) your lead times won’t be as long.  38# through 60# basis weights, both coated groundwood and coated freesheet, are in high demand and their lead times are accelerating faster than the heavier weights.  32# – 38# is a little better, but not by much.

My advice would be to get your paper situation figured out quickly and at least get an LDC date to work off of so that you can properly estimate how much time you are going to need. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me  or call me at 800-558-8724

Thank you.

Blake Hutchison, Director of Purchasing

We have been bombarded the past few days with price increase announcements from our North American mill partners. 

Below is a listing of which mills have announced, how much they are initially going to increase their prices, and when they will take effect:

 Sappi:

• Coated freesheet (CFS) web products (all finishes)
  • 55# and up – $1.00/cwt
  • 50# and below – $3.00/cwt
• Effective immediately on new and unconfirmed orders

 West Linn:

• CFS products (all finishes)
  • $2.00/cwt
• Effective with all orders placed on or after May 21^st and on any existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Appleton Coated:

• CFS products (all finishes)
  1. $2.00/cwt
• Effective with orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Verso Paper:

• CFS products (all finishes)
  • $2.00/cwt
• Coated Groundwood (CGW) products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 NewPage:

• CFS products (all finishes)
  • $2.00/cwt
• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Evergreen:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 AbitibiBowater:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Kruger:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 UPM:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 FutureMark:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Catalyst

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st 

In discussing these increases with our mill partners, one theme has been constant: they are raising prices to curb the continued pricing depression as well as alleviate pressures from rising input costs.  Pulp prices have been rising, and there is no more money coming in from the Black Liquor tax credit.  We will continue to be diligent and do everything we can to mitigate these increases as much as possible.

Lead times for both CFS and CGW grades are creeping out. CFS is out anywhere from three to five weeks, and some CGW grades are already out six weeks. I would encourage each and every one of our clients to get your paper orders in as quickly as possible to ensure availability. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me or call me at 800-558-8724

Thank you.

Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

It’s hard to believe but we’ve been talking about revised deflection/droop standards for at least eight months now.

For those of you who are just tuning in now, the droop (deflection) test measures the flexibility of mailpieces (specifically commercial flats). If mail pieces are too flexible they will topple over as they travel through the USPS sorters and scanners. Implementing deflections standards, or droop standards, will greatly reduce the amount of direct mail pieces that fall off the machines. Recently, the USPS extended the deadline for the deflections standard implementation to June 7, 2010. And, price consequences will take effect October 3, 2010. With the change in implementation dates, also came some changes to the way the droop of your mailpiece will be measured.

Click here to see an instructional video. Otherwise, read on!

(With regards to the video we know that the square piece is very close to failing, but it did meet the USPS standards.)

Written instructions about how to measure the droop of your mailpiece can be found here. (To get to the instructions, skip to section 1.6 of the document.)

You failed the droop test, now what?

Contact us! We have lots of solutions for drooping catalogs. We can work with you to make sure you optimize postage savings and pass the deflection standards … all without changing the style and branding of your catalog! (We have already worked with the client (along with many others) whose catalog failed in the video to transform their piece into one that will pass the newly-revised droop test.

Here are some additional resources if you would like to learn more about the new deflection regulations:

Click here for some of the industry comments about the new standards.

Click here to contact me or Susan Pinter, Arandell’s postal experts.

Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

In November, we announced that we will be working with BCC Software as our postal solutions provider. Recently, Don Landis, VP of Arandell Postal Affairs testified about the success we have experienced while working with BCC. Click here to check out the video.

For questions regarding Arandell’s postal solutions, contact Don Landis (HDLandis@arandell.com) or Susan Pinter (SGPinter@arandell.com). They can both also be reached at 800.558.8724.