Ahlstrom will close its Bousbecque mill in France, which produces parchment paper. This is bad news for the 117 employees who had hoped for a sale of the site and a continuation of operations.
Ahlstrom had announced in April that it planned to either divest or close the site. A solution for the mill could not be found, so the group said it would proceed with its closure. The move is part of an organisational streamlining at the group.
The Bousbecque site produces parchment paper with a capacity of 12,000 tpy. Ahlstrom plans to centralise its parchment paper production at the French Saint-Séverin plant in the future. After the closure, the company will four plants in France.
According to Ahlstrom, an unanimous agreement has been reached with trade unions regarding the content of the job protection plan and the conditions of support for employees at the Bousbecque plant. Back in April, however, trade union Filpac CGT complained that Ahlstrom had not invested in the site’s modernisation in the past years. The mill’s production had been cut to only 6,000 tpy and the employees had been put on short-time working for many months, the union said, alluding to the fact that a closure was not surprising.
