Founder Walter Schatt (left) and current CEO Reiner Schulz (right) then and now. Schattdecor says the two have always shared a vision to "... enrich the market with a highly productive and efficient decor printing operation, one of manageable proportions that delivers the highest possible printing quality and which leads the market in creativity and flexibility." 

In celebration of its 25 years of decor paper printing, Schattdecor recognizes Samerberg Beech, Bavaria Beech, Thansau Maple and Wallis Plum among its all-time best sellers. Bavaria Beech, the company's most-produced decor, launched in 1985, the same year Schattdecor was born. 

Within 13 years of its inception, Schattdecor was a global market leader and now is the world's largest maker of decor paper, serving the timber products, furniture and laminate flooring industries from 12 production facilities, including two under construction in Turkey and St. Louis. After a temporary hold on the new U.S. printing facility's build, Schattdecor recently restarted the project thanks to an upturn in new orders. The facility is scheduled to be up and running in the first quarter of 2011.

Today the company has its own base paper and ink factories as well as full-process decor development facilities, thus providing it the necessary degree of vertical integration for optimal decors. Schattdecor took up foil production as a second business mainstay in 1998 and more recently has entered the field of digital printing.

Digitally-printed surface finishes are helping to tap into new application fields and as such can readily compete with other high-grade surface finishes either alone or as a supplement to conventional rotogravure printed surfaces. First showcasing its developments at 2009 Interzum, Schattdecor's ongoing "Digital Vision" project shows investment in the new technology for digital printing and creating the organizational and personnel prerequisites for such operations. 

View a timeline of Schattdecor's 25 years in decor paper.