Essity to shut down Tawd paper mill in September 2024
The closure comes amid strategic shifts in production, with future supplies to be sourced from the company’s Manchester and Prudhoe plants
Swedish hygiene and specialty paper manufacturer Essity has announced the closure of its Tawd plant in the UK, effective 1 September 2024. The decision follows a consultation process that began in April 2024.
The Tawd facility has an annual capacity of approximately 30,000 tons of TAD paper, which is currently converted into branded and retail consumer tissue products at Essity’s Manchester plant. According to a company spokesperson, future supplies for the Manchester facility will come from Essity’s integrated tissue production plant in Manchester and the Prudhoe plant. The company does not plan to source tissue externally.
Earlier this year, Essity also shut down one of the two paper machines at its Oakenholt site. Production from the smaller machine was shifted to the larger paper machine, reducing the site’s total capacity from 72,000 tons per year to 48,000 tons. This reduction was prompted by a combination of factors, including shifts in demand and the urgent need for infrastructure investment, as explained by the company spokesperson.
In addition to these changes, Essity is modernizing its largest UK facility, located in Prudhoe, which has a production capacity of up to 94,000 tons per year of tissue. This spring, Essity completed the modernization of the combustion system on a through-air drying (TAD) tissue machine, a project carried out by Andritz.
Furthermore, construction of a new £30 million recycled fiber facility at the Prudhoe mill is progressing as planned, with completion expected in the second quarter of 2025. The construction phase was finalized earlier this year, and interior work is currently underway. The new Unifibres plant will allow Essity to use lower grades of recycled paper for tissue production at the Prudhoe site in the future, according to the spokesperson.
