According to a report this past week by Kent Online, Kent, U.K., it’s been a year since the production line at Aylesford Newsprint came to a halt – the dormant chimney is a sad reminder of the loss of one of Kent’s oldest paper mills. Now the firm in charge of selling off the company’s assets has announced the building is expected to be demolished by the summer of next year.

On February 23, the plant’s 300-strong workforce was dealt the shock blow that the firm, which had been running for nearly a century, would be applying to go into administration. It came just a month after workers were given a 2.4% pay rise.

A year on, and administrator KPMG has been given a 12 month extension to sell the remaining assets, most significantly the 100-acre plot of land on the New Hythe Business Park, valued at around EUR 30 million.

Aylesford Newsprint produced on average 400,000 metric tpy of recycled paper, and was one of three mills of its kind in the country. The site has now been decommissioned, and the latest report to creditors suggests the mill itself will be demolished some time in mid-2017.

A master plan for the land is expected to be submitted to Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council soon, although it is not yet known whether proposals would be to retain it for industrial use or offer it up for housing.

The stock of paper was bought for EUR 8.3 million and a sale of the plant and machinery was completed in September for EUR 7.9 million by waste management firm W&S Recycling.

 

Commercial director at W&S, Tony Knowles, said that "over the last six months, a considerable section of equipment has been sold for re-use, including two 100-metric ton pulping machines to an Egyptian client plus the complete PM 14 newsprint line, sold to Chinese clients," said Commercial Director at W&S Tony Knowles.

"Parts of Kent will continue to live on throughout the world."

Property and asset consultants at Lambert Smith Hampton have been appointed to sell the energy generator at the site, known as a combined heat and power scheme, which is valued at around  EUR 2.5 million.

Secured and preferential creditors will be paid in full, but unsecured creditors, owed a total of EUR 124.3 million, have been told they will get a dividend dependent on the sale price of the land.That includes the firm’s own pension fund.

After the closure, described as a massive blow to the Kentish economy, it emerged that Aylesford Newsprint had suffered an £88 million negative swing in fortunes between 2012 and 2013.

This was blamed on an over supply of newsprint in the global market.

A total of 230 employees were made redundant in a brutal mass sacking at the time of the announcement. A further 65 were kept on temporarily to assist with the decommissioning of the site. Now just 10 people remain, to help dismantle the plant and machinery.