You could argue that The KATZ Group only makes one thing, a material based on wood pulp – but they certainly do that one thing outstandingly well! The KATZ Group offers premium quality, maximum sustainability and all the added value that people expect from German-made products.
Wood pulp is a versatile material, and everything ultimately comes down to how you use it. It has been the material of choice for coasters, aka beer mats, for the last 100 years. Yet a wood pulp-based material has so much more to offer. Its unique properties make it the perfect choice for an impressive range of applications, enabling it to meet stringent industrial requirements.
“The basic material we use is appealing and instantly recognizable thanks to its special tactile or ‘haptic’ qualities,” says Daniel Bitton, CEO The KATZ Group. “So we figure why not simply make MORE out of that basic material? That’s where the idea came from to offer the advertising industry “A GREAT SPACE FOR YOUR ADVERTISING” while simultaneously offering the printing industry an eco-friendly alternative for top-quality signage, tent cards and other display solutions.” All it took was to make some technical modifications to the in-house production process at KATZ in Weisenbach and the new product was ready to be tailored to the specific requirements of each industry.
KATZ DISPLAY BOARDS are laminated with paper on both sides and consist of nothing more than wood and starch mixed with water. And The KATZ Group is PEFC certified, which gives customers the reassurance of knowing that the processed wood used to create the special wood pulp-based material comes exclusively from sustainably managed forests.
KATZ DISPLAY BOARDS are typically laminated with satin paper and are available in different sizes and in thicknesses ranging from 1.2 mm to 5.0 mm. The company also offers additional options such as compatibility with solvent inks and lamination with special papers and films.
The techniques used to laminate the wood pulp-based material with paper are carefully chosen to ensure that the printed, laminated wood pulp board can be fed back into the KATZ production process after use. Non-laminated boards can even be composted.
So in terms of sustainability, the benefits offered by KATZ DISPLAY BOARDS couldn’t be clearer. But there are many other good reasons to choose this product, including low weight and correspondingly low transport costs as well as good flatness. It also makes the lamination process remarkably easy – so easy that this step can even be performed by the customer.
A range of live tests at exhibitions and demo centres have confirmed that plastics are not particularly beneficial in the production of display boards and that they offer no advantages over KATZ DISPLAY BOARD in terms of either cut edge quality or printability. KATZ DISPLAY BOARDS provide outstanding print results when used in combination with UV flatbed printers from HP, Screen, Canon Océ, EFI, swissQprint, Mimaki, Agfa, Mutoh and Durst. This has been confirmed by their incorporation in the HP Media Solutions Locator, which enables customers worldwide to find the right graphic media solution for their needs. It is also illustrated by a number of cooperative partnerships which have seen the material put to use in various demonstration centres worldwide. “Our cooperation partners have approached us once again for FESPA 2014 in Munich, reiterating the outstanding print quality of our KATZ DISPLAY BOARDS,” says Melanie Stier, Product Manager at KATZ. “All the major manufacturers of UV printing technology will be presenting and printing on our boards during the trade fair. So it’s definitely worth checking out the booths of HP, Screen, Canon Océ, EFI, swissQprint, Mimaki, Agfa and Mutoh.”
The KATZ Group has also managed to set up an event in cooperation with HP at the Munich exhibition. As well as showcasing the material in the HP VIP area and performing regular hourly printing sessions on the HP Scitex printers, the initiative also involves welcoming and providing information to invited guests at KATZ’s own booth (hall B2, booth 325).
“In 2013 we exhibited at FESPA in London for the very first time and now we want to build on that success at FESPA 2014 in Munich,” says Daniel Bitton, CEO The KATZ Group.
“And since exhibitions are such a great place to launch new products, we want to take the opportunity to present our new 5.0 mm KATZ DISPLAY BOARD at FESPA in Munich. By combining our unique, eco-friendly material with the stability of a 5.0 mm board we have significantly increased the potential applications of our product,” Bitton enthuses.
KATZ may not be the first company to offer this kind of product – but it could well be one of the most innovative. KATZ DISPLAY BOARDS are a genuinely eco-friendly alternative to mineral oil-based POS materials. And now that eco/social responsibility has become such a key principle of the 21st century, point-of-sale display solutions need to be not only efficient, intelligent and effective, but also sustainable.
The new 5.0 mm KATZ DISPLAY BOARD will be presented at the KATZ booth and will also be on show at the booth run by ESKO, the global supplier of digital finishing solutions (hall B2, booth 238). Throughout the exhibition picture frames will be produced from the new 5.0 mm KATZ DISPLAY BOARD in live cutting demonstrations and presented to exhibition visitors. As well as offering outstanding print quality, this innovative new product also excels with clean cuts and clear, sharp edges.
About The KATZ Group:
The Katz Group dates back to the year 1716, when Johann Georg Katz established a sawmill in Weisenbach, Germany. In 1903, the company began to commercially exploit the wood waste produced by the sawmill, launching a product line of ‘moulded pulp drip mats’: The beer mat, or coaster, was born! Today, The KATZ Group supplies beer mats to 45 countries spread across five continents.
The company’s product portfolio has expanded over the years to encompass far more than just beer mats. Special solutions developed by KATZ are used in the food industry, office environments and the sound insulation market, processed into KATZ DISPLAY BOARDS, and used by industry as an eco-friendly alternative for producing anti-slip and pressure equalisation materials.
The KATZ Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Koehler Paper Group, which was founded in 1807 and is headquartered in Oberkirch, Germany. Koehler has established a global reputation as a manufacturer of high-quality special papers.