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Paper firm hopes this idea sticks

Posted: June 25, 2010

By Philip Newswanger

philip.newswanger@insidebiz.com

The World Cup is like March Madness in America. Fans are fanatic. Upsets are common. And loyalties are hard to break.

Japanese-based Yupo Paper is doing its part for the World Cup. Its European division has distributed about 5,000 handouts, which included a match schedule and stickers of each country and its flag.

As matches progress into the second round, fans can attach the stickers of the countries to each match.

The handout is an example of Yupo's synthetic paper product with tiny suction cups. Glue or another adhesive isn't necessary to adhere the stickers to the match schedule because of micro-suction points on the paper.

"This piece came out of the Yupo Europe office in Dusseldorf," said Paul Mitcham, director of marketing and sales support for Yupo, which has a 250,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Chesapeake that employs 150 workers.

"When we got it we were a little surprised," Mitcham said. "The piece looked really great. We got several hundred from Europe and used them as samples. "

In Japan and the U.S., the brand is called Yupo Octopus. In Europe the brand is called Yupo Tako.

"We may use them as a piece to lead into something like March Madness," Mitcham said.

The Chesapeake plant makes synthetic paper for labels on containers of detergent, ice cream and oil, among other products.

"Our bulk raw materials are from other places in the U.S. and a few from Asia," Mitcham said.

The main components are polypropylene and calcium carbonate, Mitcham said. Yupo buys the polypropylene from U.S. suppliers and the calcium carbonate from a mine in California.

Yupo broke ground on its Chesapeake facility in 1996. The plant opened in 1998 and began making commercial products.

It exports products to Europe and South America and ships all over the country and Canada by truck.

"We cover the Western Hemisphere out of this plant," Mitcham said. "The main company has a manufacturing plant outside of Tokyo. They supply Asia and the rest of Europe."

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