Swedish cartonboard manufacturer Holmen Iggesund has announced plans for layoffs at its site in Iggesund, Sweden. Swedish paper workers’ trade union Svenska Pappersindustriarbetarförbundet (“Pappers”) said negotiations on the dismissal of 60 employees are to be started as early as this week.
A company spokesperson confirmed the plans, explaining that the layoffs would affect 60 employees in Holmen Iggesund’s Swedish operations, but also parts of the global sales organisation in the Paperboard business area.
“Due to a less favourable market situation and higher costs, a savings programme is now being implemented to ensure competitiveness and profitability in the Swedish paperboard business. Parallel to this, a five-year investment programme to expand capacity at the Iggesund mill has been launched to improve efficiency and enable a gradual increase in deliveries to customer segments with the highest quality requirements,” the spokesperson said.
“The fact that we control forest and energy resources and have a strong market position in the premium segment for paperboard makes the Iggesund mill well placed to sell larger volumes to the right customers in the long term,” said Johan Nellbeck, Senior Vice President at Holmen Iggesund. “By adapting our operations to increase efficiency and ensure we’re well equipped when the market turns, we are able to cope with higher costs.”
At the Iggesund site, Holmen Iggesund operates two board machines with a total capacity of 330,000 tpy of fresh fibre board.
