Northwood Paper Acquires Trade and Assets of Sidcot Group

The shareholders of Northwood Paper, Tissue & Hygiene have announced that they have acquired the trade and assets of the whole Sidcot Group, comprising of the recycled tissue mill at Chesterfield and the converting operations of Matryx, Techcel and Negociar.

This brings additional valued recycled tissue production and converting capacity to the Northwood production platform. The shareholders welcome the directors, managers and staff based in Oldham and Chesterfield into to the Northwood family of companies.

Paul Fecher, Northwood Chairman, states “I have known Nigel Samuel for over 20 years, and I am pleased we’ve been able to assist with his desired exit from the trade. Northwood was identified as the most suitable company able to acquire the activities and with the resources needed to conclude the purchase of all the trade & assets of the Sidcot Group in a short timeframe.

“We look forward to being able to offer our new colleagues in Oldham and Chesterfield a bright and secure future as we further develop our vision of making Northwood the supplier of choice to the paper hygiene sector.

“The integration of Chesterfield with the recycled tissue mills in Disley and Lancaster, as well as the recently acquired paper mill in Enate Spain, brings at this time of Brexit turmoil, the important benefit of security of supply to our vertically integrated business model.”

The company states the converting lines in Oldham are a perfect complement to the converting plants in Telford, Penygroes, Bromsgrove, Ilkeston, Lancaster, Birmingham and Madrid.

All personnel based in Oldham will transfer over to the Northwood Hygiene Group and the Chesterfield personnel and business will start operating as Northwood Tissue (Chesterfield) Ltd. Naturally all day to day contacts will remain unchanged.

The Northwood companies operate across the hygienic sector covering AfH as well as all areas of the converted tissue market. It is vertically integrated and activities include recycling, parent reel production/sourcing, converting and logistics. It is the leading supplier of parent reels into the paper hygiene sector and has grown to become one of the leading UK manufacturers in the Away from Home tissue market. It has a number of market leading brands in the AfH and Consumer sectors, including Leonardo, North Shore, Whisper, Hush, Freedom Esfina and Rhino. It employs over 600 people across nine different UK sites and have sales of £300 million.

As well as Sidcot, Northwood has also acquired the trade and assets of Dicepa Papelera in Enate, Spain as well as the trade and assets of the converting plant of Manipa in Madrid.

This brings additional recycled paper production and further increases the security supply for the converting papers needed by the Northwood Companies, as well as giving the wider Northwood Group fresh access to the markets in Spain and mainland Europe. For the paper mill in Enate additional opportunities for expanding its product portfolio will be pursued. Naturally, the Manipa operations will also be expanded and able to offer the wider range of products from the finished product portfolio of the Northwood Companies.

This strategic move at this time of uncertainty underlines the importance of following it long-term goals and for the business to proceed on its growth plans. In spite of challenges of the BREXIT process, the sector is interdependent regardless of borders.

Northwood has been a major client and UK Agent for Dicepa for over 15 years with excellent relations; it is pleased to have now structurally joined forces and linked up the businesses under the Northwood brand.

The businesses in Spain will, on completion of legal formalities, which are anticipated to be completed within 30 days, will operate under the names of: Northwood Dicepa S.L. for the activities in Enate, Huesca; Northwood Manipa S.L for the activities in Alcala, Madrid.

Juan Mor will be general manager of the above Iberian businesses and the resources of the Northwood companies in all respect will now be available to its new business in Iberia.

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