Sofidel Group, Porcari, Italy, a producer of hygienic papers, especially known in Italy for its Regina brand, this past week announced it has acquired new customers and the Forest brand of tissue products from Forest PapirKft in Hungary, including 30,000 metric tpy of converting capacity and a converting plant in Piszke, Hungary. The framework of the agreement also includes buying approximately 90,000 sq. meters of land.

More specifically,Sofidel reports that it acquired:

• Finished product sales (brand segment and private label segment)
• The Forest brand, one of the main brands on the Hungarian market
• The Piszke plant (with a Futura line for toilet paper rolls) northwest of Budapest, near the Slovakian border
• The line in the Lábatlan plant (one, Perini, for toilet paper and kitchen rolls) and the lines in the Leányvár plant (several lines, for folded products—handkerchiefs and paper napkins), and the rent of the relative plants for three years
• Approximately 90,000 sq. meters of land next to the Piszke production site.

The acquired overall converting production capacity is equal to 30,000 metric tpy, involving some 200 employees. Piszke is a town along the Danube, approximately 1.5 hours by car from the capital city of Budapest.

"With this acquisition in Hungary, through our production activity, we are staking an area of eastern Europe that was hitherto left uncovered by us" declared Luigi Lazzareschi, Sofidel Group CEO.