Cascades Acquires French Deinking Mill

Cascades Inc. announces that the company and its partner, Dalum Papir A/S, have acquired the assets of La Société Greenfield S.A., a deinked pulp producer near Paris, France. The mill was operating under French bankruptcy proceedings since December 4, 2002. The transaction includes the purchase of the plant and some other assets under the form of a 50/50 joint venture with Dalum, a European producer of recycled fine paper. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, however the investments required to make the acquisition were not material.

The mill will be managed by Cascades.

Greenfield, established in 1997 is the first plant in Europe producing market pulp from recovered paper. Its products are sold to fine paper, packaging and tissue producers throughout Europe and overseas. It has a capacity of about 150,000 metric tons of air-dried de-inked pulp, but the full potential of the mill was never achieved given technical and financial difficulties.

Mario Plourde, president of Cascades’ Specialty Products Group stated: "The Greenfield purchase represents our first de-inked pulp venture in Europe, a market where demand traditionally outweighs supply. This mill is strategically located in the Paris area and will give us access to premium fiber.

"This acquisition will also allow us to avoid certain capital investments we had planned for our deinking unit at our Blendecques (Boxboard) mill, while allowing further integration with Cascades' unit in La Rochette and with the unit of our joint venture company Norampac Inc. in Avot-Vallée, France.

The mill is presently idled. However, a spokesman for Cascades says the company hopes to have the mill back in operation "soon." 

Cascades operates nine deinking units throughout the world.