Spanish Tissue Specialist CEL Restarts Production on PM 13 at Aranguren Mill

Production is up and running again at the Aranguren tissue mill of the financially troubled Spanish tissue specialist CEL Technologies & System. Approximately two weeks after the closure of the company’s acquisition by Italy’s Lucart group, production on CEL’s PM 13 at the site was successfully resumed.

"I can confirm that we have successfully restarted PM 13, and we are really satisfied with the quality. We are now working to progressively restart all the equipment," a Lucart spokesperson told RISI.

CEL’s management submitted a redundancy scheme in August which provided for the closure of three production sites and the elimination of more than 230 jobs. The CEL management was seeking the closure of the group companies Ecofibras Aranguren, Celulosas Aranguren and CEL Technologies & Systems Issue. Only the group company Dermo Products Development was supposed to keep operating. CEL was approached by several parties interested in a potential takeover of the firm, and Lucart submitted the winning bid.

In order to gradually resume production, Lucart confirmed 146 jobs in the three CEL plants. The group’s business plan provides for the restart of two continuous tissue machines at the Aranguren plant, giving it an overall capacity of 50,000 metric tpy. Moreover, Lucart intends to gradually restart converting activities at the Gunes plant and to develop and strengthen the soap and detergent production activities in the Artziniega plant, which were never discontinued.