Manufacture of paper and paper products (SIC division 17)
Division 17 of the UK SIC 2007 list. It holds 4 codes, listed in full below with the number of active UK companies filed under each.
What sits in division 17
Converting rather than milling. The codes with real numbers here are paper stationery, 17230, paperboard containers, 17219, household and sanitary paper goods, 17220, and the catch-all 17290. Actual pulp and paper mills sit in codes far below the threshold, which reflects an industry where a handful of very large plants make the paper and a long tail of smaller companies turn it into things.
Print finishers, packaging designers, machinery and die suppliers all sell into this division. So do the brands looking for UK packaging production, which has become a more active search since supply chains shortened. Because packaging companies frequently also print, expect overlap with division 18, and match on any SIC position rather than the first if you want the real population. Environmental and recycling compliance services have a natural opening here too.
How to read a division 17 code
A UK SIC code is five digits and division 17 is the first two of them. Everything filed under 17 shares those digits: all 4 codes below begin 17, then the third digit narrows to a group, the fourth to a class and the fifth to the subclass a company actually picks. Division 17 sits inside section C, manufacturing, which is the broadest tier of the classification. So a code is read left to right, from an industry down to a specific activity.
More on how division 17 codes are built
Companies choose their own codes at incorporation and can change them on any confirmation statement, and Companies House does not check the answer. A company may list up to four. That is worth knowing before you treat any division total as a headcount: the numbers here are what companies said about themselves, on the August 2026 register, and the largest single code in this division is 17230, manufacture of paper stationery.
Working division 17 as a list
Division 17 holds 4 codes and 2,531 active companies between them. 17230 is the largest at 36 per cent and the top three take 79 per cent, with the rest spread across the remaining 1 code. That is balanced enough that the division is a reasonable unit to work, though the leading code alone will usually give you a cleaner list.
More on working division 17
A caveat that matters more in some divisions than others: a company may register up to four SIC codes, and the figures below count every position, not just the first. A business filed under two codes in this division appears under both. Treat the totals as reach rather than a headcount, and if you need a clean list, filter to companies whose FIRST code sits in the division. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Every SIC code in division 17
Prospecting this division
Division 17 companies, as leads
Tell us who you sell to. We find them, with a real email. 25 free leads, no card.
Division 17 questions
Should a packaging company use 17219 or a printing code?
If you make the box, 17219 manufacture of paper and paperboard containers is right. If you print onto material someone else made, a division 18 printing code fits better. Many companies genuinely do both and list both. Nobody at Companies House will assess it, so pick the one carrying most of your turnover first.
Why are there so few paper mills on the public record?
Because there are genuinely very few, and the ones that exist are large. Manufacturing paper is capital-intensive and consolidated, whereas converting it is not, so the company count sits almost entirely in the converting codes. Company numbers are a poor guide to industry size in divisions like this one.
Find companies across division 17
✓ No card · ✓ 25 free leads · ✓ Cancel anytime