Koehler Paper pushes 100% recycled Creative Board into premium packaging with YESTAR

Koehler Paper has expanded the footprint of its 100% recycled paper portfolio in the Asian luxury market through a new supply agreement with YESTAR, a prominent Chinese medical aesthetics and health services company. The partnership integrates Koehler’s Creative Board, manufactured at the Greiz mill under the greenium brand, into the packaging of YESTAR’s exclusive Lunar New Year VIP gifts.

The selected material, a deep-red ruby variant of the Creative Board, relies entirely on secondary fibers. Historically, the luxury packaging sector has favored virgin fibers to ensure structural integrity, vibrant color reproduction, and flawless surface finishes. However, the technical processing at the Greiz facility allows the 100% recycled board to meet the exacting printability and haptic requirements of high-end brand presentations, aligning with traditional Chinese New Year aesthetics.

Udo Hollbach, Managing Director of the Koehler Paper Greiz mill, emphasized that packaging serves as the critical first point of physical contact between a brand and its clients. The deployment of the greenium line in this context demonstrates that environmental responsibility and premium sensory experiences are no longer mutually exclusive in the converting sector.

For the wider paper and packaging industry, this application underscores a structural shift. As brands face increasing pressure to improve their environmental footprint, specialty paper manufacturers are successfully engineering secondary fibers to compete directly with virgin materials in the premium segment. The YESTAR application validates the commercial viability of upcycled materials in demanding graphical and packaging environments.