Wepa Sells Piano della Rocca Tissue Mill in Italy to Roto-cart

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Wepa Lucca, Italy, a member of the Germany-based Wepa Group, has sold its Piano della Rocca tissue mill in Italy to Italian tissue company Roto-cart, according to a report by EUWID Pulp & Paper, Germany.  Financial details were not disclosed.

Piano della Rocca is one of the two tissue mills in the Lucca province that had been put on sale in 2012 as a part of Wepa's capacity restructuring programme in Italy. Piano della Rocca runs one machine with an installed capacity of 29,000 metric tpy of tissue and employs 33 people. The Fabbriche di Vallico tissue mill has a capacity of 18,000 metric tpy and is still up for sale. It has been idled since the middle of last year, with some 25 employees temporarily laid off.

Italian trade unions Fistel-Cisl and Slc-Cgil, EUWID reports, are accusing Wepa of not respecting terms and conditions of the reorganisation plan negotiated in late 2011. In addition to the 46 lay-offs agreed upon in 2011, the company recently announced plans to cut 70 more jobs, a spokesperson for Fistel-Cisl said. Furthermore, a complaint against the company has been filed with the Labour Court in Lucca, as Wepa was undermining union rights and freedoms, trade unions reported.

Wepa said the company was implementing the restructuring plan signed in 2011, but declined to comment further on what it called an ongoing issue, according to EUWID.