Rosemarie Asquino, Sales and Marketing Director for Speciality Papers, has been complaining for years that she cannot grow Sappi's Speciality business because the mill is running at full capacity. It is even shrinking in tonnage terms, because grammages are getting lighter and the machines are running at full speed. It takes just as long to produce a square metre of 50 g as a square meter of 120 g. She continues to ask when will we ever take the Specialities business seriously? Rosmarie has a strong ally in Mill Director Michael Hottmann and later Stefan Karrer, who succeeds Michael Hottmann in 2010. I gently remind them that this costs money and that the ideas we have seen to date don't look as though they will generate the return that is needed: a curtain coater, rebuild of PM 5, etc.
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