Producing notebooks after an order is placed rather than building up large inventories: Papier Tigre is changing its production process. The Paris-based stationery brand relies in particular on a Canon imagePress V1000 toner press to reduce the time between design and production.
Founded in 1992 and led by Maxime Brenon and Julien Crespel, Papier Tigre employs about twenty people. Located along the Canal Saint-Martin on a site owned by the Exacompta Clairefontaine group, the brand designs, manufactures, and distributes stationery items from its Paris workshop.
The notebooks are sold to individual customers on the Papier Tigre website and at two stores in Paris. The brand also offers B2B services with customized products.
Rising demand and the increasing number of small print runs have led Papier Tigre to revamp its operations. The brand now says it can design a product, prepare the file, and put it on sale in a single day. To keep up with this pace of bringing products to market, Papier Tigre has invested in a Canon imagePress V1000 sheet-fed toner press.
Maxime Brenon, CEO of Papier Tigre, explains: "We chose Canon for several reasons: first, for the print quality and vibrancy. In our opinion, Canon comes closest to offset technology. Second, the teams were very attentive and understood our project and our desire to innovate."
Digital printing is part of a process that still involves a significant amount of manual work. "Our production process is artisanal: everything is handmade in Paris. We can produce about 700 notebooks a day."
This approach changes the paper mill's production model: volumes can be adjusted to match sales, and new designs can be put into production without immediately committing to large print runs.
The Canon imagePress V1000 also provides continuous color calibration. For Papier Tigre, this digital press is, above all, a way to combine rapid design, small runs, and made-to-order production within its Paris studio.
