ArjoWiggins Paper Mills go into Administration

There is very sad news that ArjoWiggins, part of the Creative Papers division of parent company Sequana has placed all 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.

It 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. If a buyer or buyers for the individual mills are not found, then the mills may be closed down.

Antalis is a separate listed company but a majority shareholding is held by Sequana. At present, Antalis is unaffected, although they are the exclusive UK stockists of many of those brands made by the ArjoWiggins mills, including Curious, Cyclus, Olin, Keaykolour, Popset etc. (all are registered trademarks of ArjoWiggins Fine Papers).

As a result of this situation there may well be shortages for some of these papers. At Fenner Paper, we are increasing our stockholding, especially of our Stardream range (which is a competitor product to Curious Metallics) and our Colorset text and cover range.

If you would like to read more about the current situation, here are some links:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-6594037/Hundreds-jobs-risk-paper-owner-enters-administration.html

https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1166595/arjowiggins-uk-businesses-enter-administration

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.01.2019