BY KERIM ULKER
Eren Holding is preparing for its first overseas investment. Holding’s subsidiary Modern Karton has decided to make its first investment abroad in the UK. The company signed an agreement to purchase the newsprint mill site and all related assets of UPM in North Wales, the UK. Modern Karton Sanayi ve Ticaret AS, the containerboard and corrugated packaging business of the Turkish industrial conglomerate Eren Holding has established a company called Eren Paper Ltd to conduct the purchase. The closing of the transaction is planned for late Q3 2021.
Eren’s plan is to integrate the Shotton site into its existing business units and to make further investment at the site. All 190 employees currently working at UPM Shotton will be part of the transaction.
Newsprint production is planned to stop by September 30, 2021 and Eren will take over responsibility for the mill as of October 1, 2021. While the concrete timeline for the conversion plans will be communicated by Eren, it is already known that the Renewable Energy Generation plant and Material Recovery and Recycling Facility (MRRF) will continue operations throughout the conversion process, corresponding to their role in the regional utility infrastructure.
Eren Holding’s Modern Karton is one of the most important corrugated cardboard producers not only in Turkey but also in Europe. Modern Karton Sanayi, which increased its production to 1 million tons with its 5th paper facility commissioned with an investment of EUR 350m in 2015, is one of the companies with the most advanced technology in the paper industry with its production in a total area of 508,000 square meters.
“We are very pleased with this agreement,” said Winfried Schaur, Vice President of UPM Communication Papers. A long-term future waits for the employees at our Shotton paper mill. This sale will also support Eren Holding’s growth of its business in the UK market,” he said. The price Eren Holding will pay for this sale has not been disclosed.
Helsinki-based UPM is one of the most important companies in the world with a turnover of EUR 11bn. UPM, which has facilities in 12 countries and 18,700 employees, came together in 1996 through the merger of two Finnish companies, Kymmene Corporation and Repola Oy. Although it has a history of 25 years, the company is quite old, in fact, the oldest paper company in the world. UPM, the owner of Papeteries de Docelles, founded in 1452 in the town of Docelles in France, is also the manufacturer of a paper making machine for the first time in the world in the 1830s.
