Showing posts with label Cocoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cocoon. Show all posts

Wednesday 25 September 2019

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:
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

Monday 27 May 2019

Shiro Echo is 100% Recycled Paper

Many readers will know of our lovely range of ecological papers from Favini called SHIRO. Favini is a paper manufacturer based in Italy with mills in Vicenza near the city of Venice and at Crusinallo. They have taken a lead in the utlisation of non wood pulps since the early 1990’s and they are the manufacturers of the SHIRO range.
With the demise of the ArjoWiggins recycled mills and with it the products Cyclus and Cocoon, many printers and designers have been turning to Shiro Echo as an alternative.
Shiro Echo is available in two shades; there is a white shade (which is a natural/off white) and similar to the old shade of Cyclus and a Bright White shade which is similar to the old Cocoon. It is 100% Recycled and also carries the FSC Recycled classification.
As you can see from the image below, we have good stock availability in the UK, in fact many, many tonnes!

You can see the range here.

If you would like a swatch, please email me Justin@fennerpaper.co.uk
Posted by Justin Hobson 27.05.2019

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