Showing posts with label Dalum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dalum. Show all posts

Saturday 30 March 2019

ArjoWiggins - news update

Back in January I wrote about the situation at ArjoWiggins, which had placed five of it's manufacturing mills into administration. There are three paper mills in France employing over 900 people and two mills in the UK plus other subsidiaries employing over 600 people and I wrote about the situation in the beginning of the year here.

Yesterday, there was a ruling by the court in France, who had the final decision on the offers that had been made by the various interested parties interested in buying the business or parts of the business.

Unfortunately the outcome is far from positive. The largest mill in Bessé-sur-Braye (Sarthe), which employs over 550 employees is to be closed. The various offers and recovery plans were unable to raise the necessary capital (15 million Euros was needed) and therefore must now close. Amongst others, the mill makes Cocoon, Cyclus, Maine, Satimat and Chromomat.
The Greenfield recycled pulp mill (Château-Thierry) has been sold to the German tissue producer Wepa and apparently all 75 jobs are to be saved.

The French court approved the plan for the takeover of the Le Bourray mill, located in Saint-Mars-la-Brière, by a local company CGMP which is a manufacturer of towels, tablecloths, paper rolls and is a long time customer of the mill. The good news is that they will retain over 100 of the original 260 employees, however the mill will cease production of all graphical papers which also includes part of the Cyclus range.

So will this mean the end of Cyclus? In terms of the manufacturing, the mills are closing, so that is that; but the chances are that some company will buy the Cyclus brand and keep it on the market. In fact Cyclus has only been made at these French mills since 2012! Cyclus was originally conceived in the mid 1990's at a Danish paper mill called Dalum, which was bought by ArjoWiggins in 2007 and subsequently closed by them after transferring production to their mills in France with the loss of 260 Danish jobs, which I wrote about here.

This recent news shows what a bad state the paper manufacturing world is in. The combination of decreasing demand and higher energy and raw material costs including both pulp and chemicals means that all manufacturers are having a rough time.

So what of ArjoWiggins Creative Papers in the UK with paper mills at Stoneywood (Scotland) and Chartham (Kent)? Apparently the administrators are conducting due diligence with a "preferred bidder" however it is worth remembering that this was the case with the French mills up to last week. Stoneywood makes ranges such as Keaycolour, Curious, Olin, Popset, Conqueror etc and Chartham makes translucent (tracing paper). I can't make a guess as to whether the mills will survive; certainly it is a matter of record that a multi million pound investment is needed for a new power plant at the Stoneywood mill which has just under 500 employees. ArjoWiggins also owns a mill in Quzhou (China) where they make the same tracing paper products (reputedly much cheaper) so although the brands certainly have value, who knows if the banks will support a bidder looking to buy these mills.

Antalis is a separate listed company but a majority shareholding is held by Sequana (the holding company which own ArjoWiggins). However on 21st March, Sequana filed for bankruptcy to protect themselves and to give them time to "restructure" the Antalis shareholding (this means selling shares to anyone else other than Sequana). How will this go? Given the fact that it was only in 2017 that Antalis had to withdraw their 'junk bond' offering to the market due to lack on interest, so maybe things don't look so good. David Hunter (MD of Antalis) has been making positive statements about the future of Antalis as you might expect.

You can read more following these links here...
https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1167297/largest-french-arjo-mill-to-liquidate-as-two-more-sold-on
https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1167209/arjo-admin-reports-reveal-full-scope-of-debt
https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1167220/antalis-md-speaks-out-on-sequana-arjo-situation
With thanks to Printweek.
Posted by Justin Hobson 30.03.2019

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Cyclus manufacturer to close

Last Friday, Arjowiggins announced that it is to close it's Dalum mill in Odense, Denmark, by the end of 2012. Dalum is the paper mill that makes Cyclus which I know will be familiar with many readers of this blog. The mill, which currently produces 150,000 tonnes of paper a year was one one of the pioneers of 100% recycled papers.

Dalum Papirfabrik (De forenede) or Danish Paper, as it was known in the UK, was taken over by Stora in 1990 and in 1991 started to use recycled fibres. Stora merged with Enso and in 1999, StoraEnso (the new company name!) sold Dalum to a Danish group of investors for €28 million.

Jens Kampmann
Chairman (and former Danish minister for the environment) of the newly formed Dalum Papir,  Jens Kampmann, further developed the mill's recycled offering in the early 2000's and boasted "Dalum Papir has undergone a very impressive development over the past few years to become what we believe is the most environmentally friendly paper mill in the world."

Dalum was purchased by ArjoWiggins in 2007 for the grand sum of €63.5 million.

Arjowiggins has announced that it is to close Dalum by the end of 2012 to compensate for overcapacity in the market as European paper demand has been decreasing by around 6% annually for several years. There are currently 260 staff employed at the mill.

Here, at Fenner Paper, we have dealt with the mill for many years (even before they were producing recycled paper) and we are very sorry to hear this news. Our thanks and  good wishes go to all the employees at the mill and wish them the very best for the future and with new employment opportunities.
 
Posted by Justin Hobson 19.09.2012