Cauthorne Paper (CONT’D FROM PAGE 20)
substrates, their suppliers and their uses. “When I was in the box business, we bought the majority of our sheets from one or two sheet suppliers,” he recalled. “At Cau- thorne we have 25 different suppliers for the various types of materials our customers use. The ‘cons’ of this,” he con- tinued, “are we can’t leverage our volumes, but the ‘pros’ are we have great suppliers for a variety of materials.”
Cauthorne buys a wide range of grades and materials, some of which are familiar to the corrugated industry, and some not: linerboard from Smurfit-WestRock; and uncoat- ed recycled board from White Birch and Greif. The compa- ny buys specialty kraft paper from Ahlstrom-Munksjo and tag stock from Sylvamo. Newman Paperboard, Eska and Greif supply chipboard, while Cauthorne’s non-woven and non-paperboard materials are purchased from Fiberweb, Ahlstrom Fiber Group, Midwest Filtration and a handful of others. ‘Pizza Math’ This varying array of converting substrates carried with it a whole new cost and pricing structure which Williams dubbed, “pizza math.” He explains: “In box converting, fig- uring the square feet of a production blank is an equation that gets a lot of repetition. Sheets are purchased per MSF and boxes are priced per thousand.” Paper converting calculations, Williams continued, are quite different. “The geometry is different, and quantities, unit costs, and prices are represented in a broader vari- ety of measures, mostly relating to weight or linear inches, feet or yards,” he explained. “Sometimes we sell cartons of sheets, or bundles or reams of paper, and these are units of measure too. We track our production by weight, and our productivity is measured in sheets per minute, linear feet per minute and pounds per man hours, among other measures. If you like math, you’d like paper converting.” Steve Young is the former president of AICC and a reg- ular contributor to Board Converting News. He lives in Vir- ginia and can be reached at (202) 297-0583 or via email at asyoung001@gmail.com. Editor’s note: Part two of this story will be featured in the February 16 issue of Board Converting News. Rolls of nonwoven and non-paperboard Finon await slitting and rewinding in Cauthorne’s receiving area.
22 February 9, 2026
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