Mohawk News : Mohawk Color Copy Celebrates First Anniversary

COHOES, NY – The stakes are higher than ever today for a paper company to effectively develop, position, brand, and successfully launch a new product. Top line revenue pressures mean increased pressure to market smarter to quickly gain a solid foothold to mainstream acceptance.

Launched just one year ago at NPTA, Mohawk Color Copy broke the mold with its portfolio approach, superior quality, and dramatic packaging -- achieving instant celebrity as the “latest and greatest” in the digital arena. Twelve months later, Mohawk Color Copy sales have shown double-digit growth month over month. “Mohawk Color Copy is rock solid,” says Chris Harrold, Director, Business Development for Mohawk. “Color is the growth engine for digital pages with the strongest category growth coming from the 24-59 ppm segment – Mohawk Color Copy’s target.”

Not surprisingly, the mainstay of Mohawk Color Copy’s growth is with the company’s core group of traditional paper distributors and paper stores. “We were gratified to gain nearly universal uptake of Mohawk Color Copy among our existing distributors,” said Harrold. “And with the growth of the digital market, the merchant paper store has become an important channel for us.”

Mohawk Color Copy now available coast-to-coast

Starting November 1, Mohawk Color Copy became available in all 117 xpedx Paper and Graphic Stores nationwide. “We have a long and successful history with xpedx stores in the Northeast and Southeast,” says Harrold, “but this national relationship brings the game to a new level. It gives the rapidly expanding color digital print market greater access to Mohawk Color Copy.” According to Mike Cape, Vice President Marketing for xpedx Paper & Graphics.“The xpedx Stores Division sees the digital market as a key arena for growth. As we expand our digital offering we want to align with the best suppliers in the business. Mohawk is a natural choice.”

The merchant store community is well positioned to take advantage of the fastest growing area in the graphic arts. In serving the small-to-medium size printer, merchant stores have moved quickly to capitalize on the market segment that accounted for over 50% of the new installations of color copier printers in the U.S. market in the last 12 months. According to Rob Witherby of Kelly Paper on the west coast, an early adopter of Mohawk Color Copy, “We have seen tremendous growth in digital papers. Mohawk read the market well and redefined this product category.” Other paper stores experiencing success with the Mohawk line now include FasClampitt, Frank Parsons Express, Lewis, Paper and More, PaperPlus, and PickQuick.

The retail value of print-on-demand, according to the consulting group, CAPV, will grow from $32 billion in 2003 to $60.2 billion by 2008 at a compound annual growth rate of 13%. Mohawk is poised to grow with the market and to capture its share of the 54 billion impressions printed annually on digital color devices (Source: CAPV). The Mohawk Color Copy line includes: Mohawk Color Copy 100% PCW, which is FSC certified and made with wind power; 100 bright Premium, 96 bright, and Color Copy Gloss. “When we launched the line last year, we knew the color copy market was crowded. At the same time, there were few products that stood out. Our goal was to develop a new quality standard and a product line so strong that it would become an instant icon. We’ve done that,” says Craig Slemp, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Planning.

For more information, please visit Mohawk at NPTA (New Orleans Hilton Riverside, Suite 4086.

Mohawk Paper Mills, Inc. is a leader in the manufacture of premium printing and imaging papers. From its flagship grade, Mohawk Superfine™, to proprietary Inxwell® products, Navajo® and Options® to Mohawk Color Copy™, Mohawk engineers its papers to provide optimal performance for sheetfed, web and digital printing. A leader in environmental stewardship, Mohawk is one of the first large-scale production facilities in the U.S. to use non-polluting, wind energy to manufacture paper. For information about Mohawk papers that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and/or Green Seal please call Mohawk at 1-800-THE MILL.