The information has been circulating for a few days, it is now official. The Belgian group VPK has given up the idea of taking over the UPM site in Chapelle Darblay on which it had positioned itself like five other industrialists and has set its sights on the French paper mill of the Thai group Double A.
VPK today unveiled its plans for the paper mill located in Alizay, Eure. It plans to convert the paper mill into a production site based on recycled paper, in collaboration with de-inked pulp producer Inova Pulp and Paper (IPP).
The VPK Group, which has a turnover of 1.5 billion euros, will convert the existing paper machine to produce recycled lightweight packaging board. It will install a production unit for corrugated packaging. The corrugator will produce fanfold (an accordion-folded corrugated board) to make custom packaging for e-commerce fulfillment sites and logistics players. This production will mainly supply the VKP Group's own packaging converting plants in France and the UK, which is one of the main buyers in Western Europe.
IPP will set up a waste paper recycling plant for the production of deinked pulp at the Alizay site. The deinked pulp will be sold to mills producing sanitary, office and packaging papers.
The Double A-owned Alizay Bioenergy Plant (BEA), which has been generating green electricity since January 2021, will supply decarbonized steam to the IPP de-inked pulp mill and VPK's converted paper mill.
VPK, which employs 6,500 people at 65 sites in 20 countries, operates two other paper mills, nine corrugated box plants and one core plant in France. The group has already converted, in 2019, one plant in France, the Blue Paper plant located in Strasbourg.
This project marks the end of Double A's office paper production in France. The Double A Group will supply the market from its plant in Thailand.
