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Founded in 1895 as a family business in Osnabrück, Felix Schoeller GmbH & Co. KG supplies the manufacturing industry worldwide with speciality papers – including decorative paper for the furniture and timber industries, photographic paper and sublimation papers. The company develops, manufactures and distributes its products from 10 sites across six countries. From supplying its own plants to delivering to customers, around 314,000 tonnes of finished and semi-finished goods are moved annually; of this, 244,000 tonnes reach their destination via 11,000 land transport journeys across Europe. Around 70,000 tonnes are transported worldwide by sea each year in 4,000 containers. To manage these processes reliably and efficiently, the company has relied on the support of the NOSTA Group since 1988. Felix Schoeller’s long-standing logistics partner is responsible for global transport dispatching as well as contract logistics at two German sites, including the jointly designed goods service centre in Siebenlehn. Felix Schoeller also relies on NOSTA time and again for intra-European land transport. Thanks to the logistics provider’s comprehensive expertise across the supply chain and its hands-on approach, Felix Schoeller is able to respond flexibly to changing market conditions.
Fierce international competition, a persistent shortage of skilled workers and increasing digitalisation: the paper industry faces a wide range of challenges. Felix Schoeller, a family-run business based in Osnabrück which has established itself as one of the world’s leading suppliers of photographic paper, is constantly adapting to changes in the global market and has steadily expanded its product portfolio. As a result, decorative papers for the furniture and woodworking industries now represent the division with the highest turnover. Felix Schoeller supplies industrial companies worldwide with its solutions. In order to continue focusing on its core business – paper production – the company has relied on the expertise of the Osnabrück-based NOSTA Group since 1988. A collaboration that began in the areas of shipping logistics and freight forwarding services and has evolved over the last 38 years into a strategic partnership spanning all core areas of logistics.
In order to supply international industrial companies with goods efficiently, Felix Schoeller needed a partner to take responsibility for the global coordination of transport operations. The choice fell on NOSTA. Today, the full-service logistics provider employs dedicated staff at each of Schoeller’s four German sites (Osnabrück, Günzach, Titisee-Neustadt and Weißenborn), who plan transport operations directly on site. Through this close collaboration, NOSTA has become Felix Schoeller’s first point of contact for logistics matters: “Thanks to our long-standing and intensive collaboration, NOSTA has in-depth expertise regarding our processes and our customers,” says Alexander Remy, Process Manager for Supply Chain & Logistics at Felix Schoeller. As a result, the company frequently commissions its long-standing partner to handle European land transport operations as well: “However, this is by no means a foregone conclusion. We regularly put sea and land transport contracts out to tender, and it is then up to NOSTA to come out on top against the competition,” Remy continues, adding: “As a long-standing partner, NOSTA offers us a level of reliability that we cannot directly replicate with freight forwarders we are unfamiliar with. The combination of our first impression when liaising with potential partners, costs and availability is crucial.” Felix Schoeller regularly chooses NOSTA, particularly for deliveries to the German market, the United Kingdom, Poland, Slovakia and the Benelux countries.
A key foundation for this partnership-based collaboration is the pragmatism demonstrated by the logistics service provider: “We treat each other as equals. As a medium-sized company, we value the short decision-making processes and the hands-on approach: NOSTA finds solutions and implements them – without the hurdles associated with large corporate structures,” says Remy.
One example of this collaborative partnership is the Warehousing and Services Centre (WDZ) in Siebenlehn, Saxony, which the two companies planned together in 2008. “The dedicated warehouse is tailored precisely to our needs – and thus symbolises the comprehensive collaboration with our partner, who devises and implements customer-specific solutions to meet our requirements,” explains Remy.
Among other things, changes in the global market prompted Felix Schoeller to increasingly diversify its product portfolio: “As early as the beginning of the 2000s, the trend was already shifting away from the mass market for roll-fed paper towards broader ranges of high-quality paper in smaller batches and formats. As digital photography became increasingly prevalent, we shifted our focus from silver halide to inkjet paper and met the demand for various paper weights ranging from 60 to 310 grams per square metre,” says Remy. As the product range expanded, so did the need for storage capacity, as well as the necessity to place greater internal emphasis on development and production. Consequently, in 2008, Felix Schoeller commissioned NOSTA to plan, construct and operate the WDZ in Siebenlehn, near the Weißenborn production site. “Originally, the site was primarily intended to temporarily store goods ready for dispatch from Weißenborn and to deliver them to customers from there,” says Remy. Accordingly, NOSTA transports finished goods from Weißenborn to Siebenlehn and handles a wide range of services on site, from goods receipt through storage, order picking and final packaging to goods dispatch and scheduling for customer shipments.
“Today, we have a comprehensive plant supply and waste management concept in Siebenlehn,” emphasises Remy. In addition to storing goods ready for dispatch and supplying end customers, the Siebenlehn site now also serves to supply the Weißenborn production site. “NOSTA also transports semi-finished goods – for which we lack storage capacity in Weißenborn – to Siebenlehn via a shuttle service and stores them there temporarily before they are returned to Weißenborn for the final stage of production,” says Remy. In total, 8,000 pallets are stored in the narrow-aisle warehouse and 9,000 pallets in the wide-aisle warehouse at Siebenlehn, covering an area of 15,423 square metres. Every year, NOSTA moves around 55,000 tonnes of material between the Felix Schoeller production plant in Weißenborn and the WDZ in Siebenlehn. Since early 2024, three electric trucks have been in use for this purpose, which the two companies introduced as part of a joint EU-funded project.
“We are constantly developing the site together. NOSTA understands our processes and is able to respond quickly to changing requirements,” says Remy, adding: “In an era of increasing digitalisation, the photographic paper sector has been and continues to be a shrinking market. That is why we have diversified our operations and are now focusing more strongly on, for example, the decorative panel sector within the woodworking industry.” Whilst the WDZ in Siebenlehn is mainly used for storing photographic paper from the Weißenborn plant, in 2024 and 2025, storage space that was temporarily under-utilised was used for dispatching decorative paper rolls from other production sites. Clamp forklifts are required to handle non-palletised paper rolls. “In this context, NOSTA promptly purchased an interchangeable clamp attachment to convert an existing forklift into a clamp forklift – meaning there was no need to purchase new industrial trucks,” says Remy.
In August 2021, Felix Schoeller expanded its partnership with NOSTA in the field of contract logistics to include a second site: the logistics provider’s multi-user site in Melle, Lower Saxony, serves as a production and distribution warehouse for various Felix Schoeller sites, primarily Osnabrück. “Across 12,500 square metres, NOSTA stores around 10,000 rolls of decorative paper, each up to two metres high and weighing approximately one tonne, and handles goods receipt and dispatch as well as order picking on site for national and international customer shipments,” explains Remy. NOSTA uses its railway siding to transport finished goods from the Osnabrück plant to Melle: the logistics provider uses four sliding-wall wagons to shuttle goods back and forth between the Schoeller plant and the multi-user site. Remy says: “These supplement the factory’s outbound logistics, which are handled by road transport. Particularly at weekends and during production peaks, it is not possible to carry out all the necessary transport to Melle by lorry. With the NOSTA warehouse’s railway siding and the transfer of goods via sliding-wall wagons, we are able to handle these volumes.”
The paper industry is undergoing constant change. “Demand for sustainable solutions for a wide range of applications is on the rise, whether it be packaging materials for the growing online retail sector or paper filter solutions for industrial applications – as an industry, it is our responsibility to move with the times,” emphasises Remy. When it comes to logistics, the Osnabrück-based family business relies on its long-standing partner: “Thanks to our trusting working relationship, we are well placed to continue responding flexibly to changes and fluctuations in the market,” says Remy, adding: “We will continue to work together to further optimise our processes – particularly in times of challenging economic conditions.”
