SCA Acquiring P&G European Tissue Operations

SCA is acquiring Procter & Gamble’s entire European tissue operations. The acquisition will boost SCA’s private label products in Europe. The acquisition will include acquiring a host of P&G brands.

The five facilities are located in Manchester, England; Witzenhausen and Neuss, Germany; Orléans, France; and Lucca, Italy. The acquisition will give SCA further possibilities to optimize distribution and logistics to better serve SCA´s retail customers.

Several of the brands SCA will acquire include the Tempo brand. In addition, SCA will obtain an exclusive license in Europe to use Bounty and Charmin brands for kitchen rolls and toilet tissue respectively.

The decision to purchase the European operations follows an announcement late last month by SCA to build a new machine at a U.S. mill. In that program SCA Tissue North America said they will spends $145 million for a new paper machine at its Barton, Ala. The facility is expected to be complete by next summer. The company began operations at the Barton site in 2003.

The Barton facility manufactures 100,000 tons of tissue a year. With the new machine, annual tissue production in Barton will increase to 170,000 tons. SCA Tissue North America manufactured 520,000 tons of tissue across the business in 2006.