Iggesund Paperboard Sweden, reports that it is now taking bold action to improve its service. The company offers its customers a wide range of services, but most important is its delivery service. Like most other paperboard manufacturers, Iggesund – and not least its customers – has suffered from delivery times that have varied considerably.

 

"Having a capacity utilization rate of almost 95% makes you very sensitive to fluctuations in demand, especially when that demand increases," explains Arvid Sundblad (photo), VP of sales and marketing for Iggesund. "In the past we’ve had a number of such experiences and we don’t want either ourselves or our customers to go through that again."

 

A logistics team has been working for a couple of years to gradually improve the situation. A little more than six months ago, Iggesund launched the greatly modernized support system that forms the foundation for the improved delivery service.

"The change of systems was so radical that it was about the same as doing a heart-lung transplant plus a full body blood transfusion in a human being," Sundblad adds. "This reorganization has created the conditions for us to start moving towards constant delivery times, but that will take time."

 

Iggesund’s delivery service solution ranges from overnight service from dedicated customer stocks to regular deliveries from the mill, with several more options in between. Further development will occur during the next 12 months.

 

Iggesund’s service offering also encompasses everything linked to the products Invercote and Incada, from technical support in local markets to the paperboard expertise the company offers with its range of reference materials.

 

We don’t just want customers to buy our paperboard," Sundblad says. "It’s important to us that they also get the most out of it. All of our documentation and our teams of locally based technicians with their experience of projects and processes similar to our customers’ exist to make sure that happens. We’ve offered some of this support for a long time, but we haven’t made it clear enough to the majority of our customers that this service is available."

 

Other features of the service offering, which is now being launched under the name "Care by Iggesund," are the fast, easy ordering of samples and inspirational materials, the provision of product safety information and certificates, and access to the analytical services of Iggesund’s accredited Laboratory for Chemical and Sensory Analyses. Iggesund’s extensive environmental documentation is also part of the service, not least as a guarantee that customers will have no unpleasant surprises about the origin of their forest raw material.