UPM reaches phase II of Sappi venture
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James Cropper’s Coloursource range of premium coloured paper will now be globally available through Winter & Company, significantly boosting its accessibility worldwide
Winter & Company has announced the global availability of Coloursource, a premium range of high-quality, uncoated, dyed-through coloured paper and card produced by historic British manufacturer, James Cropper.
First launched globally in late 2025 through an exclusive partnership with Winter & Co, the Coloursource range offers 50 colours across three matched grammages – 135gsm, 270gsm, and 350gsm.
Coloursource is produced in the UK by James Cropper at its Burneside mill in the Lake District, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is suitable for offset, digital, and silkscreen printing, as well as for blind embossing and hot foil stamping, and includes a diverse range of white hues.
The international expansion of Coloursource from Winter & Co, which has subsidiaries across several continents and additional regional hubs, will significantly boost the accessibility of the paper range, allowing for shorter delivery times, higher product availability, and more dependable planning.
The launch aims to give designers, publishers, and brands easier access to a reliable colour consistency across three grammages through a single partner. The new launch is designed to combine international availability with local distribution, offering the service consistency of a global supplier with the responsiveness of regional support.
Coloursource will also be available within a dedicated webshop which is already live for UK customers.
Paul Davinson, managing director of Winter & Co, says: “The launch of Coloursource has been a great success.
“The support from our customers for premium dyed-through paper manufactured in the UK is a strong driver for this. As we enter the next phase, we will sell Coloursource though a dedicated webshop. This new service will mean that we can get product to market even more efficiently.”
The creative agency, D8, which is based in Glasgow, Amsterdam, and the Gold Coast, was a lead creative partner for the initial launch of Coloursource in 2025, has returned for the Winter & Company expansion, providing a range of new artistic photos of the paper.
Shot by photographer Susan Castillo, the campaign celebrates the quality of the materials – folded, curved, and suspended with fishing wire to show the simple beauty of high-quality paper. No AI or CGI was used for the photos, with everything captured using just a camera and specialised lighting.
The launch of Coloursource in late 2025, which also included artistic shots from D8, marked a strategic shift for James Cropper in which it announced plans to “own the future of colour in paper.”
The D8 campaign, titled ‘The Original British Coloured Paper’, leaned heavily into James Cropper’s 180-year heritage and its status as the last remaining coloured paper mill in Britain.
Paul Barber, managing director at James Cropper, says: “Designers want colour that stays true and paper that behaves predictably in production. Coloursource is made to deliver that reliability, with the look and feel people expect from a dyed-through, uncoated sheet.”
