Neuwied and Rhein, Germany, 24 January 2007 -- /PRNewswire/ -- The French envelope manufacturer GPV GROUP and the German envelope and paper group Curtis 1000 Europe AG formed a strategic alliance to jointly develop certain activities and thus provide better service to their major European customers.

GPV is privately owned and one of the leading envelope manufacturers of Europe with a strong position in France, the United Kingdom, and in the Eastern European countries, except Poland.

Curtis is a publicly listed German company with two paper mills and a strong envelope business in Germany and Poland. It has related businesses in Western Europe. Furthermore, Curtis is the only licensed converter to manufacture and market DuPont (TM) Tyvek(R) envelopes in Europe.

Together both companies are able to deliver the best service to their customer, based on a perfect geographical match. In addition, the alliance offers the broadest range of products in their category and a set of specialized services. The customer will benefit from this alliance by best products, efficient production, and excellent supply chain management.

"The working relationship between the two companies was superb right from the beginning when talks started" says Franck Glaizal, CEO of GPV. "This is key to make it happen and to generate real value, both for customers and for our companies." Ingo Hafner, CEO of Curtis, fully agrees: "We can now offer highest productivity combined across Europe, which strengthens our position vis-à-vis our competitors."

Source: Curtis 1000 Europe AG

Web site http://www.curtis.de/