April 03, 2008 -- Polestar Colchester has become the penultimate company in the group to achieve FSC accreditation. The company has also been awarded PEFC status.

When Polestar Varnicoat achieves its FSC accreditation in the next few weeks, all nine UK production plants within Polestar will have the award for FSC stewardship. Overseeing this process has been Gary Marshall of Polestar who says: "We have taken a steady approach across the group, with each plant working towards FSC in accordance with the varying demands of their respective customers." .

With a portfolio of over 200 titles, including weeklies, monthlies and a range of fortnightlies, bi-monthlies and quarterlies, Polestar Colchester carries out over 300 make-readies each week. Against this backdrop of variety and flexibility, automating the process was key, as Tina Offen, Paper Manager at Polestar Colchester explains. "We are required to implement an auditable trail from the moment the paper is on site. However, the automation process starts when the order is received from the customer, with paper codes, job bags, pallet labels and bindery dispatch dockets all marked up with the relevant FSC logos. We carried out a number of trials of the process before the assessment date to ensure the procedures were successful." .

A comprehensive team was put together to create the relevant procedures required to monitor and audit the paper trail on site. Tina Offen continues: "It is a team effort, with colleagues from operations, the press room, despatch, IT, customer services and paper ensuring that the FSC paper usage is monitored on site at all stages." .

Steve Mears, Managing Director of Polestar Colchester, adds: "I am delighted that the hard work and commitment shown by this management team has been suitably rewarded. We can now move forward with these awards and offer our customers a service that is increasingly coming up on their criteria for when looking at suppliers." .