FBCC Patron Metsä Tissue has announced that it has chosen Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire as the site for its planned new state-of-the-art tissue paper mill in the UK. This landmark investment of several hundreds of millions of pounds will deliver the largest tissue mill in the UK and significantly reduce the quantity of tissue products that are currently imported into the UK and Ireland each year. The new mill will create 400+ jobs at the facility, as well as thousands more across the supply chain and the local economy.
“Goole is the perfect location for this proposed investment. The Humber region provides a crucial gateway to the whole of the United Kingdom and the region’s ambitions to bring cutting-edge green technology and jobs to the UK matches our ambitions in clean, sustainable manufacturing,” says Esa Kaikkonen, CEO of Metsä Tissue.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Metsä Tissue’s investment is good for Yorkshire, good for our economy and good for sustainability. This announcement is another example of the UK being the first choice for European investment and delivers on my commitment to grow the economy, creating better-paid jobs and opportunity right across the country.”
Up to 45% of tissue products are currently imported into the UK and Ireland. Metsä Tissue aims to replace almost half of the imported products with local British production, using fresh fibre pulp as the main raw material from sustainably-managed forests in the Nordics. Reducing the reliance on imports will have a positive impact on the UK’s productivity, carbon footprint and self-sufficiency for essential tissue products.
The Goole facility will use cutting-edge sustainable production technologies to deliver an efficient and modern facility with a world class environmental performance. Metsä Tissue’s activity is rooted in sustainability, with a target for all products to be manufactured from fully fossil-fuel-free raw materials by 2030 as we strive to achieve a net zero society. Additionally, we aim for all our mills, including the new Goole facility, to operate without the use of fossil fuels by 2030.
Occupying a site of around 200 acres, the mill will have the capacity to produce 240,000 tons of tissue paper production capacity, built in several phases over the next decade, serving both the professional and consumer markets – a level of production unrivalled in the UK. The planned facility would be the first major investment in the government’s proposed Goole Freeport site, which aims to accelerate inward investment in the Humberside area.
Click on this link to read the full details on Metsä Group’s website.
