1. At a Glance
Star Paper Mills is that old uncle in the paper industry who’s been around since 1938, has a degree in every ISO possible, yet still manages to set his factory on fire—twice in two years. With sales of ₹424 Cr, profits of ₹40 Cr, and a market cap of barely ₹286 Cr, the company looks like a discount-store version of JK Paper. But before you clap for their “debt-free” status, don’t miss the juicy detail: 47.2% of promoter shares are pledged tighter than a Diwali mithai dabba.
2. Introduction
Welcome to Saharanpur, U.P., where Star Paper Mills runs four machines trying to convince the world that “paper isn’t dead, only newspapers are.” This Duncan Goenka group company makes cultural papers (for envelopes, diaries, greeting cards), industrial papers (for soap packaging, tobacco wrappers, bidi rolls), and a few “other grades” nobody remembers until GST audit season.
Despite being older than independent India, Star still fights for relevance in a world where kids swipe iPads instead of scrapbooks. The company proudly flaunts its R&D recognition from the Ministry of Science & Tech, which sounds cool—until you realise the breakthrough is probably “how to make wedding cards shinier.”
But let’s not dismiss them too early. They are debt-free, run an integrated pulp and paper mill, and still manage to pay a dividend yield close to 2%. Not bad for a company whose working capital days exploded from 115 to 238 (basically, customers paying them slower than LIC maturity cheques).
So, should you even bother with this paper tiger? Hold that thought.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Star Paper Mills runs a simple “we cut trees → make pulp → press into sheets → sell to stationery dealers → pray kids don’t abandon books” model.
- Cultural Papers: Maplitho watermarked, diary printing, calendars, and scrapbooks (yes, people still buy those for weddings and exams).
- Industrial Papers: Packaging, soap wrappers, paper cups, grocery bags, and tobacco packing (bidi-wrappers remain their hottest SKU, no kidding).
- Other Grades: Random coloured multipurpose sheets in pink, yellow, blue—basically what every government office still uses for “urgent memos.”
The Saharanpur mill has a capacity of 75,000 MTPA. Roughly 28,000 MT writing/printing papers and 36,000 MT packaging papers were sold in FY23. That’s almost a 60:40 split in favour of packaging—makes sense, since Amazon deliveries and Zomato biryani need more boxes than college students need registers these days.
Their R&D? Recognised, yes. Revolutionary, no. Don’t expect AI-powered notebooks—just better opacity in exam
