Arjowiggins Update

Jo Francis from Printweek reported the following yesterday...

Administrators from Interpath Advisory were appointed at ten Arjowiggins Group UK subsidiary businesses four weeks ago, including its Stoneywood paper mill near Aberdeen and the Chartham mill in Kent. 

The closing date for indicative offers in the sale of the businesses passed at the end of last week. A spokesperson for joint administrators Blair Nimmo and Alistair McAlinden told Printweek: “The initial sale of business deadline passed without identifying any immediately deliverable transactions to secure the sale of either UK mill as an operational facility.” 

While the joint administrators will continue to look for buyers, “this will now be alongside the site wind-down strategy and the sale of assets on a piecemeal basis”. The spokesperson added: “If any party has a genuine interest in acquiring both or either mill as an operational facility, then they should contact the joint administrators immediately.” 

Unite Scotland regional industrial officer Shauna Wright said she was saddened at the situation.

Arjowiggins swatches

You can read the full article here: https://www.printweek.com/news/article/end-of-the-line-looms-for-arjowiggins-mills

Arjowiggins Mills go into adminstration

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-63001007

There is very sad news that the Arjowiggins paper mills in the UK have been placed into administration. There are two paper mills involved employing over 460 people, the mills are in Stoneywood (near Aberdeen) and Chartham in Kent. The same Arjowiggins mills were last in administration in 2019 and the mills in France were either closed or sold but these two UK mills were bought by the management in a deal which was backed to the tune of £7million by Scottish Enterprise. The group also has overseas subsidiaries include the Guarro Casas mill in Spain, and Quzhou mill in China, neither of which is included in the insolvency proceedings ( ...which is a bit strange!)

https://www.printweek.com/news/article/administrators-take-charge-at-historic-arjo-mills

Arjowiggins manufacture many of the brands that readers of this blog will be familiar with including the Curious Collection, Keaykolour, Popset, Conqueror, Rives, which are shown in their lavish swatchbooks (design by North)...

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) our Zeta range of premium business stationery paper, our Colorset text and cover coloured paper range and of course our Spectral transparent paper range.

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.09.2022  

ArjoWiggins mills saved in UK

Today it has been announced that the two remaining UK paper mills of the ArjoWiggins group have been bought in a buyout by the management of the failed mills. This is excellent news for the UK paper industry, saving over 500 jobs.

 

You can read more here on the Printweek site:

https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1168845/arjowiggins-uk-businesses-acquired-in-mbo

I have previously written about ArjoWiggins when they went into administration here and when their mill in France closed here, taking with them products that many were familiar with including Cyclus, Cocoon, Chromomatt, Satimatt etc...

This buyout involves two UK paper mills, Stoneywood, based in Scotland and Chartham, based in Kent. This is very positive news for the UK and it is great that the management finally managed to convince the banks that it was a risk worth taking. Apparently significant financial backing has also been received from the economic development agency Scottish Enterprise. In these strange political times, it will be interesting to see how the Scottish parliament will view the Scottish development agency propping up a paper mill based in Kent! 

 

Recent history demonstrates that many paper mills that come out of administration often don't make it and go bust again, Let's hope that is not the case for these mills and they can make a positive contribution to the UK economy.

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.09.2019

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