Artem Dulkin: We have several types of business and five production sites

In the settlement of Polotnyanyy Zavod, on a historical site — the territory of the old Goncharovs’ paper factory — our three large projects are located.

All of them are successfully operating and bringing in profits.

— Artem, we visited you a year ago and were impressed by your ambitious plans. You have implemented many of them and probably exceeded them. Tell us, what have you managed to do and what is now the PZPM company?

— Yes, we really did a lot in 2022, and this allowed us to reposition the company. Polotnyano-Zavodskaya Paper Manufactory, the oldest enterprise in the pulp and paper industry and the stationery industry, will celebrate its 305th anniversary in 2023. Today we are not only the largest player in the Russian market of paper and paper products — we now have several different businesses and five production sites.

— The first of them is located in the settlement of Polotnyany Zavod?

— Yes, our three large projects are located in the settlementof Polotnyany Zavod, on a historical site — the territory of the old Goncharovs’ paper factory. All of them are successfully operating and making a profit.

First is the production of waste paper packaging board, flutings (paper for corrugating) and flat-ply cardboard. Two paper-making machines with a production capacity of more than 70 thousand tons per year are involved in production. Secondly, it is Russia’s first unique paper museum, Buseon, which has been operating on the territory of the PZPM since 2018. Here you can learn almost everything about paper — from the history of the first production to the most modern paper technologies. We hold interesting excursions and fascinating master classes for children and adults.

Thirdly, last year a paper bag factory started operating in the settlement of Polotnyanyy Zavod. We have been preparing for it for two years and now we produce paper bags from waste paper and cellulose. The capacity of the new shop, which was opened in September 2022, is 60 million pieces per year. The main part of the product is produced under the MakPak brand, which is bags made of recovered paper board, which we also produce ourselves.

The PZPM collects waste paper, produces paper, and then makes paper bags from it. This is the main advantage of our company, since the raw materials account for 60-70% of the cost of a bag.

Besides, the important fact is that recovered paper is the most environmentally friendly material today. Firstly, it is not necessary to cut down forests for its production. Secondly, the products made of recovered paper do not harm the environment: such a bag decomposes in only thirty to forty days. So our production is really environmentally friendly and we are proud of it.

— What, besides environmental friendliness, can be called an advantage of MacPack’s products?

— First of all, our bags are cheaper than cellulose bags. Secondly, there is the possibility of customization — printing a logo or a picture, including the use of selective varnish. This way customers can express their ideas, emphasize their individuality.

And besides that we are already creating a collection of bags for main holidays: New Year, February 14, February 23, March 8. I am sure that our holiday bags will be the most available on the market. More often than not, you just don’t need an expensive gift bag!

Nowadays production of paper bags is a perspective business, demand for these products grows from year to year. Paper bags are in demand as packaging for food and household products, for clothing; they are used by food delivery services from restaurants and cafes. Month after month, sales to our partners, who buy paper and white goods from us, are growing.

— Polotnyany Zavod also used to be home to the production of PZPM notebooks. Where is it now?

— Today all the paper and white goods of factory are produced at our second production site in the town of Kondrovo, eight kilometers from Polotnyany Zavod. In 2022 we opened a new notebook factory here, moving and installing equipment for notebook production.

The new complex occupies 11 thousand square meters and includes production facilities, a warehouse, and an administrative building where we plan to house all of the company’s office employees.

Thanks to the move to the new site, we have seriously optimized our production and logistics processes, including the organization of the warehouse of finished products and the implementation of a modern WMS-system for the management of warehouse operations. As a result, we got a closed-cycle production within a single space. And, most importantly, we have the ability to scale our production and storage capacity, which we plan to do in the next year and a half to two years — the space allows.

The notebook production is one of our priorities. The new production site is set up for the production of student notebooks, general notebooks, notebooks, albums, sketchbooks, notebooks, and other paper and stationery products.

— What is the production base of PZPM for the production of notebooks today?

— Four automatic lines are in charge of production of notebooks, that is Bielomatik, two Will lines, and a new automatic line for production of notebooks and albums — LineOmatic 104, which was installed last year. Its acquisition enabled us to make production more flexible in terms of timing and assortment, and to fulfill orders with greater precision, increasing our annual capacity to 300 million pieces in 12-sheet count.

In addition, we have a semi-automatic Kugler-Womako line for the production of products on the comb.

We also have one of the best aspiration systems in the notebook factory. This equipment allows us to automatically remove, sort and press paper waste from the production lines for further sale. We produce a lot of waste paper, and without the suction system we would have to collect it manually.

— In addition to the products you have already told us about, PZPM also produces corrugated packaging?

— Yes. Here in Kondrovo our third production site is located — the corrugated packaging factory "Vesta". This is the second production facility for corrugated cardboard and containers in the Consolidate Paper Mills group of companies. The factory produces more than 72 million square meters of products per year, and in the future we plan to increase the volume by several times — at the end of January we finish the modernization of corrugator.

We use only high quality raw materials, have modern imported high-tech equipment for the production of four-valve cardboard boxes, boxes of complex shape, non-standard corrugated products and self-folding corrugated packaging with printing in four colors, and plan to become one of the leading domestic manufacturers of corrugated packaging.

In addition, twelve kilometers from Polotnyany Zavod, we have another rather large (fourth) block of buildings where we produce special types of paper, including foil paper. There we also plan to produce food bags for packing hamburgers, French fries, etc.

— At the end of last year it became known that the PZPM became the owner of another enterprise — the Troitsk Paper Factory.

— That’s right. JSC "Troitskaya Paper Factory" (TPF), one of the oldest enterprises of the domestic pulp and paper industry and Russia’s only producer of parchment, is now part of the Consolidate Paper Mills group of companies. The main shareholder is the Polotnyano-Zavodskaya paper manufactory.

The Troitsk factory is 236 years old. A truly legendary enterprise. It was at this plant that parchment (greaseproof and heat-resistant paper) was invented, which is now used all over the world. In everyday life, it is used mainly for baking. But this is not the only sphere of application of parchment, it is used in many industries. We produce the best parchment in the world and have a global market share of about 20% for this product.

TPF’s two production sites are also located in Kondrovo. The factory produces not only high quality parchment, but also various types of paper and combined materials. The company’s products are exported to 55 countries on six continents!

So we are actively developing. Today PZPM is a large enterprise, ready to supply a wide assortment of paper products and large volumes of paper and paper-paper products. We are already in the top three in our production capacity and do not intend to stop there.

Source: KANZOBOZ.LIFE